Tech strength helps avert big losses on Wall Street

Energy stocks suffer some of the market’s sharpest drops

NEW YORK — Most of Wall Street stumbled Thursday, but another rise for big technology stocks helped keep the market’s losses in check.

The S&P 500 dropped 12.22 points, or 0.4%, to 3,246.22, with nearly three out of four stocks in the index falling. Among the hardest-hit were oil producers, banks and other companies that most need the economy to pull out of its recession. Treasury yields also sank in a sign of increased pessimism about the economy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 225.92 points, or 0.9%, to 26,313.65. Earlier, the market had seemed set for a much steeper fall. The Dowwasdownas many as 547 points, while the S&P 500 tumbled 1.7% within the first hour of trading.

Stronger-than-expected profit reports from UPS and other companies helped the market trim its losses through the day. So did steadying prices for Amazon and other big tech-oriented stocks, which reported their own results after the day’s trading ended. Anticipation for their reports, which proved to be even better than Wall Street expected, helped the Nasdaq composite erase its early loss and climb 44.87, or 0.4%, to end the day at 10,587.81.

The jumbled trading came after a report showed that layoffs are continuing at their stubborn pace across the country, denting hopes that the economy can recover nearly as quickly as it plummeted into recession. A separate report Thursday showed that the U.S. economy contracted at a nearly 33% annual rate in the spring, the worst quarter on record.

Markets worldwide had already turned lower before those data releases dropped. An earlier report showed that Germany’s economy, Europe’s largest, suffered through its worst quarter on record during the spring.

Investors had already been expecting the reports on the economy to be weak, “so the real story today for traders is earnings,” said Chris Larkin, managing director of trading and investment product at E-Trade Financial.

Thursday was the busiest day for profit reports among S&P 500 companies within the busiest week this earnings season.

Earnings reports have mostly been better than Wall Street’s expectations so far, but they’ve been far below year-ago levels, before the pandemic struck. The big companies in the S&P 500 are on track to report a nearly 38% drop for the second quarter from a year earlier, according to FactSet.

Energy stocks had some of the market’s sharpest losses, dropping in concert with oil prices amid worries about a weaker economy. Exxon Mobil dropped 4.9%, and ConocoPhillips lost 5.8%.

Financial stocks were also weak, hurt by a drop in interest rates that reins in the profits to be made from lending. JPMorgan Chase fell 2.7%, and Citigroup lost 3.1%

On the winning end was UPS, which jumped 14.4% to a record high after reporting revenue and profits that blew past analysts’ expectations.

Benchmark U.S. crude dropped $1.35 to settle at $39.32 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 81 cents to $42.94 a barrel.