U.S. stocks edged lower on Thursday, pausing after recent gains, after AT&T said it lost subscribers in the last quarter, while banks fell following results.
JPMorgan Chase
Bank of America
"The first bank results were OK, but I guess people might be wondering about reported and continued sluggishness in loan growth and a little bit of an uptick in credit quality concerns. Over the next few days we`ll get many more reports and more material for people to study," said John Carey, portfolio manager at Pioneer Investment Management in Boston.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average <.dji> fell 31.87 points, or 0.14 percent, to 22,841.02, the S&P 500 <.spx> lost 3.4 points, or 0.13 percent, to 2,551.84 and the Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> dropped 7.11 points, or 0.11 percent, to 6,596.44.
AT&T
Related stocks also fell, including Comcast
With the S&P 500 up about 14 percent in 2017, investors are hoping earnings growth can help justify valuations. Analysts expect S&P 500 earnings grew 4.4 percent in the third quarter, according to Thomson Reuters data. S&P 500 companies posted double-digit profit gains in both the first and second quarters.
"People got a little bit spoiled by the very nice advances we saw in the first and second quarter, but keep in mind that earnings started perking up in the third quarter of last year so the year-over-year comparisons might not look as robust," Carey said.
That, along with brokerage Guggenheim raising concerns over subscriber losses at Disney and Viacom, sent fresh jitters across a sector hit a day earlier by President Donald Trump`s suggestion to challenge TV network licenses over `fake news`.
The three indexes managed to eke out new intraday highs early in the session on gains in technology and industrial stocks.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.22-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.10-to-1 ratio favoured decliners.
(This article has not been edited by Zeebiz editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
12:52 AM IST