Stocks have down day ahead of earnings numbers
Investors are anxious because falling oil prices and a strengthening dollar have hampered 1st-quarter results.
U.S. stocks slumped Monday as investors looked ahead to a flood of earnings reports this week.
Stocks appeared headed for new highs in the morning, but drifted lower in the afternoon as health care companies dropped sharply. Mylan, a maker of generic drugs, slumped nearly 6 percent. It was a downbeat note after strong gains last week, capped by a new record in the Nasdaq composite, 15 years after its dot-com era peak.
With little news moving markets, “I think we have some profit-taking here,” said chief stock strategist Phil Orlando of Federated Investors as stocks started dropping in the afternoon.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 42.17 points, or 0.2 percent, to close at 18,037.97. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 8.77 points, or 0.4 percent, to 2,108.92. The Nasdaq fell 31.84 points, or 0.6 percent, to 5,060.25.
The drops were broad, with seven of the 10 industry sectors of the S&P 500 down for day. Health care stocks fell the most, down 1.8 percent
One bright spot was Dow index component DuPont, which rose 4.6 percent after activist investor Nelson Peltz gained a powerful backer Monday in his effort to split the chemical maker into two companies. Proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services recommended shareholders give the billionaire investor two seats on DuPont’s board.
More than 150 companies in the S&P 500 report quarterly results this week, including Ford, Visa, Pfizer and Exxon Mobil. Investors are anxious because falling oil prices and a strengthening dollar have hammered first-quarter results at some companies. Per-share earnings for the S&P 500 are expected to fall 0.8 percent from a year earlier, according to S&P Capital IQ, a provider of financial data.
That would be the first drop since 2009, though it is better than the 2.4 percent drop expected two months ago.
Investors are also worried about slumping revenue at many companies, thanks in part to the stronger dollar. That makes money generated overseas by big companies here worth less when translated back into the U.S. currency. Companies can compensate by cutting costs, but it’s not easy given all the cutting already.
“We’re at the point in the cycle where revenue needs to pick up, but it’s not,” said David Lebovitz, global market strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management. He added, “I’m not so sure companies can slash their way to earnings; they’re running pretty leanly.”
Investors are also looking ahead to Wednesday when the Federal Reserve ends a two-day meeting where policymakers will discuss when to raise a key interest rate that has been held near zero for 6½ years. After its March meeting, the Fed opened the door to a rate increase this year by no longer saying it would be “patient” in starting to raise its benchmark rate.
The government also releases its estimate of economic growth in the January-March quarter. Gross domestic product is expected to have risen 1 percent, down from 2.2 percent in the previous quarter.
The price of oil fell slightly Monday as concerns about hefty supplies offset signs that oil companies are cutting production. U.S. oil slipped 16 cents to $56.99 per barrel. Brent crude, a benchmark for many international oils used by U.S. refineries to make gasoline, fell 45 cents to $64.83 in London.