Stocks decline; EBay slumps 11%

A day of mostly listless trading on Wall Street ended Thursday with U.S. stocks giving back modest gains from the day before.

Telecom stocks declined the most, weighed down by a slide in shares of AT&T, Sprint and other phone companies. Only healthcare stocks eked out a gain. The broad slide snapped a twoday winning streak for the market. Energy futures and precious metals also fell.

Investors mostly waded through another round of earnings reports. Although some firms turned in disappointing results, most of those that have posted earnings so far beat financial analysts' expectations, said JJ Kinahan, chief strategist at TD Ameritrade.

The major stock indexes are all up for the week.

About 15% of the companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 have reported quarterly results so far this earnings period. Of those, more than 80% have turned in earnings that beat expectations, Kinahan said.

Financial companies have been among the best performers so far.

On Thursday, investors bid up shares in American Express, which reported better-than-expected earnings and raised its annual outlook. The stock was the biggest gainer in the S&P 500, climbing 9% to $66.78.

Toy maker Mattel rose 6% to $32.46 after it reported strong earnings.

Several other companies’ results failed to impress.

EBay slumped 10.8% to $29.02 after the e-commerce giant reported disappointing fourth-quarter results. The stock was the biggest decliner in the S&P 500.

Union Pacific fell 6.7% to $90.64 after the railroad operator said weak demand for consumer goods had dampened its freight and coal shipments volume.

Traders also weighed some new economic data. The Labor Department said weekly applications for jobless benefits rose to the highest level in five weeks, though it stayed near a 43year low. The National Assn. of Realtors said September sales of previously owned homes rose 3.2% from August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.47 million, the strongest since June.

Benchmark U.S. crude fell 2.3% to $50.43 a barrel. Brent crude, used to price international oils, slid 2.4% to $51.38 a barrel. Wholesale gasoline fell 2 cents to $1.49 a gallon. Heating oil fell 3 cents to $1.56 a gallon. Natural gas fell 3 cents to $3.14 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Gold fell $2.40 to $1,267.50 an ounce. Silver fell 11 cents to $17.55 an ounce. Copper was little changed at $2.10 a pound. Bond prices were little changed. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note held steady at 1.75%.

The dollar rose to 103.96 yen from Wednesday’s 103.39 yen, while the euro weakened to $1.0928 from $1.2275.