Stocks fall on mixed earnings; oil slumps

Stocks closed lower Wednesday on Wall Street, weighed down by a mixed batch of corporate earnings from big retailers and lingering uncertainty over the trade spat between the U.S. and China.

Lowe’s and Nordstrom were among the biggest decliners in the S&P 500 after the retailers reported quarterly results that fell short of Wall Street’s expectations. Target bucked the trend, surging after its latest results handily topped analysts’ forecasts.

Chipmakers and other technology stocks also pulled the market lower, continuing a pattern of volatile trading as investors react to developments in the U.S. and China’s trade dispute. Energy stocks also took losses, falling along with the price of crude oil. Small company stocks declined more than the rest of the market.

The sell-off outweighed gains by health care companies, household goods makers and other sectors, reversing some of the market’s gains from a day earlier.

“There’s just so much uncertainty, it’s really hard for anybody to frame how it’s going to play out,” said Karyn Cavanaugh, senior markets strategist at Voya Investment Management.

The S&P 500 index fell 8.09 points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,856.27. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 100.72 points, or 0.4 percent, to 25,776.61. The Nasdaq composite slid 34.88 points, or 0.5 percent, to 7,750.84.

Bond prices rose, dragging the yield on the 10-year Treasury to 2.38 percent from 2.42 percent late Tuesday.

Heightened tensions over trade have stuck the market in a rut for the last two weeks. The major U.S. indexes are all down more than 3 percent in May, although they are still holding on to gains for the year between 10 percent and 16 percent.

The turbulent stretch of trading this month has been a change from the relative calm that dominated markets earlier this year, when a trade agreement appeared in the works.

The U.S. has imposed 25 percent tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese imports and is planning to target another $300 billion, a move that would cover everything China ships to the U.S. China, meanwhile, has retaliated against $110 billion in U.S. products.

Tech stocks have swung between gains and losses this week after the U.S. proposed restrictions on technology sales to Chinese companies and then granted a 90-day grace period.

Energy stocks also fell after energy futures closed broadly lower. Halliburton lost 3.3 percent, and Schlumberger slid 2.9 percent.

Energy futures finished lower Wednesday. Benchmark U.S. crude fell after the U.S. Energy Department reported a large increase in crude supplies for last week. It dropped 2.7 percent, settling at $61.42 per barrel.

Brent crude, the international standard, closed 1.6 percent lower at $70.99 per barrel.