Stocks end another wobbly day lower
Wall Street’s losses mounted for the second straight day Tuesday as momentum slows on worries about rising virus counts and Washington’s inability to deliver more aid to the economy.
The S&P 500 fell 0.3% after spending much of the day swinging between small gains and losses. Most of the stocks in the index fell, par ticularly banks, oil producers and other companies whose profits tend to track the strength of the economy. Those losses outweighed gains in technology stocks and companies that rely on consumer Traders also welcomed news that AMD has agreed to buy fellow chipmaker Xilinx for $35 billion.
The market’s latest pullback, which follows the S&P 500’s worst day in a month, cuts fur ther into what had been a solid rebound this month after heavy selling in September snapped a five-month winning streak. Just two weeks ago, the S&P 500 was holding on to a 4.4% gain for the month. It’s now on track for a gain of just 0.8%.
“Even though we had a really nice runup for a few months, we had been concerned there would be some volatility coming in pre-election, and it’s just a function of the huge uncer tainty level,” said Lisa Erickson, head of the Traditional Investment Group at U.S Bank Wealth Management.
The S&P 500 fell 10.29 points to 3,390.68. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 222.19 points, or 0.8%, to 27,463.19. The Nasdaq composite rose 72.41 points, or 0.6%, to 11,431.35.
Caution continues to hang over markets. Coronavirus counts keep climbing at a troubling rate across much of the United States and Europe. The worry is that could lead to the return of lockdowns aimed at slowing the pandemic’s spread, which could fur ther choke of f the improvements the economy showed during the summer.
The U.S. economy’s momentum has already slowed followspending. ing the expiration of supplemental benefits for laid-of f workers and other support that Congress approved for the economy earlier this year.
Repor ts on the economy released Tuesday were mixed. Orders for big-ticket manufactured goods rose 1.9% in September, an acceleration from August’s 0.4% growth and better than economists expected but well below July’s 11.8%. Consumer confidence also weakened a bit in October, when economists were expecting it to hold steady.
“The market was really set up for any sor t of a negative surprise that could potentially impact it,” said Scott Knapp, chief market strategist at CUNA Mutual Group.