Wall Street slips as tumbling crude oil prices drag down energy stocks
>> Wall Street ticked lower Wednesday after another sharp slide for the price of crude dragged down oil-and-gas stocks.
The S&P 500 slipped 17.84, or 0.4%, to 4,549.34 for its third straight loss, locking in its longest losing streak since October.
Each of those drops was modest, though, and the index remains near its best level in 20 months.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 70.13, or 0.2%, to 36,054.43, and the Nasdaq composite lost 83.20, or 0.6%, to 14,146.71.
Energy stocks had the market's worst drops by far. Halliburton sank 3.6%, and Marathon Oil fell 3.5% after crude oil touched its lowest price since June.
A barrel of benchmark U.S. crude tumbled roughly 4% as expectations build that the world has too much oil available for the global economy's demand. It sank below $70, down more than $20 since September. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 3.8% to $74.30 per barrel.
Losses for Big Tech stocks, which are some of Wall Street's most influential, also weighed on the market. Nvidia dropped 2.3%, and Microsoft lost 1%.
Helping to limit the market's losses was a gain of 1.9% for homebuilder Toll Brothers, which reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also said demand from buyers has remained solid so far in the current quarter, thanks in part to slightly easier rates available for mortgages.
Mortgage rates have regressed as Treasury yields have dropped on hopes that the Federal Reserve may finally be finished wwith its barrage of hikes to interest rates, meant to get high inflation under control. Wall Street is betting the Fed's next move will be to cut rates, possibly as early as March, which would juice the economy and financial markets.
More reports arrived Wednesday that bolstered those hopes. The Federal Reserve's next meeting on interest rates is in a week, and the widespread expectation is for it to leave its main interest rate alone at its highest level in more than two decades.