A swoon in technology and transportation shares led Wall Street lower on Thursday, with stocks hastening their declines in afternoon trading on a day full of corporate earnings reports.
The Dow Jones Transport Average <.djt>, often looked at as a gauge of the economy`s health, was down 3.2 percent, dragged lower after a disappointing outlook from package delivery company United Parcel Service
The transports fell to their lowest point in nearly two months as UPS rival FedEx
The S&P 500 technology sector <.splrct> was the worst performing major group, falling 1.2 percent even as Facebook
Tech has been the best-performing sector this year, leading the S&P 500`s 10.2 percent run this year.
Wall Street`s main stock indexes had all tallied intraday record highs earlier in the session, and the Dow industrials held their gains.
"The general sentiment of the market coming into the day was that transportation stocks are telling us something that we`re not paying attention to," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities in New York.
"You`ve got a general feeling a lot of good news is priced in to this market," Hogan said. "That holds with technology. The problem with momentum stocks, once they start heading in a direction they get there violently and that`s what we`re seeing today."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average <.dji> rose 21.2 points, or 0.1 percent, to 21,732.21, the S&P 500 <.spx> lost 9.32 points, or 0.38 percent, to 2,468.51 and the Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> dropped 57.64 points, or 0.9 percent, to 6,365.11.
The PowerShares QQQ Trust
“My guess is this is selling by a large ETF holder, likely in the QQQ”, said Kim Forrest, senior equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh, referring to the market`s afternoon decline.
Amazon.com
With nearly half the S&P 500 having reported, second-quarter earnings are expected to have climbed 10.7 percent, compared to an 8-percent rise expected at the start of the month, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Verizon
Twitter
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.45-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.24-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
(This article has not been edited by Zeebiz editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
12:24 AM IST