Stocks barely move as retailers falter

U.S. stock indexes finished Tuesday near where they started. Technology companies and household goods makers rose, but weak reports from sporting goods and auto parts retailers left a lot of smaller companies with steep losses.

Dick’s Sporting Goods and Advance Auto Parts both disclosed disappointing quarterly results and cut their forecasts. A slew of other retailers also dropped, including Home Depot, which posted strong results. Other groups of stocks managed modest gains.

Brian Nagel, an analyst with Oppenheimer & Co., said struggles for Dick’s and Advance Auto Parts don’t say anything about how retailers in other industries are doing, but if investors grow pessimistic about retail, they may sell all kinds of retailers when one part of the industry struggles.

Stocks were coming off their biggest one-day gain in more than three months as the market recovered from last week’s turmoil.

Dick’s Sporting Goods plunged 23% to $26.87 after it cut its annual forecast after a weak second quarter. The sporting goods chain said that athletic apparel sales were weak and that it plans to do more marketing and cut prices as it tries to keep its market share.

Foot Locker fell 4.4% to $47.13. Hibbett Sports dropped 16.5% to $11.65. Athletic apparel companies also lost ground. Nike fell 2% to $58.56. Under Armour declined 2.6% to $16.66.

Advance Auto Parts tumbled 20.3% to $87.08 after it slashed its annual forecasts. It and its rivals face weakening demand because car sales are slowing from their recent record pace, and competition from online retailers is growing. AutoZone fell 1.8% to $516.13. O’Reilly Automotive fell 1.2%, to $196.

Luxury retailer Coach sank 15.2% to $40.64 after its quarterly sales and its profit forecast for the current fiscal year disappointed.

Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.27% from 2.22%. Bank stocks rose.

Offshore oil drilling rig company Transocean slid 5.7% to $7.91 after it said it will buy Songa Offshore for $1.2 billion in cash. The deal would expand Transocean’s backlog as it continues to deal with low oil prices, but it would saddle the company with even more debt.

Pandora Media climbed 4.1% to $8.40 after the streaming music service named Dish executive Roger Lynch as its next CEO.

U.S. crude oil fell 4 cents to $47.55 a barrel. Brent crude rose 7 cents to $50.80 a barrel. Wholesale gasoline stayed at $1.58 a gallon. Heating oil fell 1 cent to $1.60 a gallon. Natural gas fell 2 cents to $2.94 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Gold fell $10.70 to $1,279.70 an ounce. Silver fell 41 cents to $16.71 an ounce. Copper fell 2 cents to $2.88 a pound.

The dollar rose to 110.58 yen from 109.63 yen. The euro fell to $1.1734 from $1.1782.