Tech, bank stocks sag after rally
NEW YORK — U.S. stocks finished lower Thursday after an afternoon rally faded. Banks and technology companies fell after the market pulled off a huge rally the day before.
Deutsche Bank dropped after German authorities raided its offices on suspicion some of its employees helped clients launder money. Financial stocks fell as interest rates again edged lower. Crude oil prices climbed after they briefly dipped under $50 a barrel overnight. The rebound helped energy stocks trade higher. Health care companies, which have climbed over the last month, continued to do better than the rest of the market.
The Federal Reserve released minutes from its meeting in early November. Officials expressed concerns about a variety of threats to the economy, including the impact of tariffs, a slowing global economy and tightening financial conditions amid falling stock prices. The assessment was in line with comments Wednesday from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
“That’s what the Fed is trying to put out there, is they haven’t gotten carried away with rate increases,” said Thomas Martin, portfolio manager at Globalt Investments in Atlanta. “The market wants to see ... that they are going to be gradual.”
The S&P 500 index shed 5.99 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,737.80. The Dow Jones Industrial Average recovered from a loss of 163 points and ended down just 27.59 points, or 0.1 percent, to 25,338.84.
The Nasdaq composite slid 18.51 points, or 0.3 percent, to 7,273.08 as tech stocks dipped. Smaller companies, especially banks and industrial stocks, fared worse. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks lost 5 points, or 0.3 percent, to 1,525.39.
The S&P 500 index was coming off its largest rally in eight months and has climbed 4 percent this week. It finished at a six-month low on Friday.
Benchmark U.S. crude rose 2.3 percent to finish at $51.45 a barrel in New York. Brent crude edged up 1.3 percent to $59.51 a barrel in London.
EOG Resources rose 1.6 percent to $105.47 and Anadarko Petroleum gained 2.2 percent to $53.70. The S&P 500 index of energy companies has dropped 12 percent over the last three months, worse than any of the other major market sectors. The S&P 500 itself has fallen 6 percent over that time.
Health care stocks, meanwhile, have jumped 7 percent in the last month, about double the gains in the broader market. On Thursday drugmaker Pfizer picked up 1.4 percent to $45.51 and medical device maker Medtronic added 1.3 percent to $96.60.
Stocks rallied Wednesday after Mr. Powell suggested in a speech that the Fed might be almost done raising interest rates, and is willing to stop raising rates at least temporarily so it can assess the effects of the last few years of increases.