Stocks mostly rise; Facebook falls again
NEW YORK — Stock indexes finished mostly higher after a day of bouncing around Tuesday as retailers, energy companies and banks recovered some of their losses from the day before, but technology companies struggled as Facebook dropped again.
Amazon led a rally among retailers, and it passed Alphabet, Google’s parent, as the second most-valuable U.S.-listed company, while energy companies rose with oil prices.
Banks rose along with interest rates as the leaders of the Federal Reserve met. They are expected to raise interest rates Wednesday.
Facebook sank following reports that the Federal Trade Commission will investigate its handling of user data while authorities in the U.S. and U.K. demanded answers from the company.
That came after reports that Cambridge Analytica, a data mining firm working for President Donald Trump’s campaign, improperly obtained data on 50 million Facebook users without their permission.
While Facebook stock regained a portion of its losses at the end of the day, it has fallen more than 9 percent this week.
Social media companies Twitter and Snap also fell as investors considered the possibility that the government will pass new laws affecting their businesses.
“We don’t know what’s in store for an industry that isn’t really regulated,” said Samantha Azzarello, global market strategist at JP Morgan Exchange Traded Funds. The gainers Tuesday were mostly larger companies, which suffered the biggest losses Monday. Smaller companies struggled and more stocks fell than rose on the New York Stock Exchange.
After a drop of 1.4 percent Monday, the S&P 500 index rose 4.02 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,716.94. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 116.36 points, or 0.5 percent, to 24,727.27.
The Nasdaq composite rose 20.06 points, or 0.3 percent, to 7,364.30. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks dipped 0.16 points to 1,570.41. Amazon jumped $41.58, or 2.7 percent, to $1,586.51 and Best Buy picked up $1.51, or 2.2 percent, to $70.04. Industrial companies including Caterpillar recovered much of their losses as well. Some major technology companies including Apple, Microsoft and Nvidia moved higher after significant drops a day ago.
Facebook lost $4.41, or 2.6 percent, to $168.15. The drop in the last two days is the worst for Facebook in two years, and it knocked Facebook from its perch as the fifth most valuable publicly traded company in the U.S.
Other social media companies also sank: after sharp losses Monday, Twitter plunged $3.63, or 10.4 percent, to $31.35 and Snap lost 42 cents, or 2.6 percent, to $16. Alphabet, which fell 3 percent Monday, lost another $427 to $1,095.80.