Stocks drop, ending 3-day win streak for S&P 500

Healthcare and energy companies led U.S. stocks lower Thursday, ending a three-day winning streak for the Standard & Poor’s 500 index. The decline was only the benchmark index’s fourth loss this month.

The modest sell-off came as investors weighed mixed economic data and company earnings reports while keeping an eye on Washington, where U.S. and Chinese negotiators resumed highlevel talks aimed at ending their costly trade dispute. Treasury yields rose, and the price of gold fell.

Some of the selling may have been driven by traders electing to take some profits after a big rebound in recent weeks, which came after a steep sell-off in the last three months of 2018, said Erik Wytenus, global investment specialist at J.P. Morgan Private Bank.

“Markets need a little bit of an opportunity to breathe,” he said. “We definitely have seen some market participants lightening up some risk, given the size of that bounce back, because any way you slice it, we’re late in the [economic] cycle.”

The S&P 500, which has risen each of the last three weeks, fell 9.82 points, or 0.4%, to 2,774.88. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 103.81 points, or 0.4%, to 25,850.63.

The Nasdaq composite fell 29.36 points, or 0.4%, to 7,459.71. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks fell 6.11 points, or 0.4%, to 1,575.55.

The sell-off followed a torrid rise for stocks since late December. The S&P 500 is up 10.7% for 2019. That’s a better performance than the index has turned in for three of the last four full years.

Thursday’s losses were broad, with healthcare stocks, banks, energy and communications companies accounting for much of the decline. CVS Health slid 2.9%, and SVB Financial Group lost 2.1%. CenturyLink declined 4.1%. Oil and natural gas explorer Concho Resources dropped 7.8%.

Stocks headed lower from the get-go Thursday morning on a mix of new economic data.

The Labor Department said fewer workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than economists expected, an encouraging sign that layoffs are low. A separate report said that orders for big-ticket manufactured goods weren’t as strong in December as expected.

The mixed data add to concerns that economic growth will slow around the world this year.

Traders also got a mixed picture in Thursday’s batch of company earnings reports.

Domino’s Pizza shares slumped 9.1% after the pizza chain reported weak fourthquarter growth at its stores and posted results that fell short of Wall Street forecasts.

Avis Budget Group jumped 17.1% after reporting earnings that were much better than analysts expected.

Johnson & Johnson edged down 0.7% after the healthcare products giant disclosed that it had received federal subpoenas related to litigation over its baby powder.

Benchmark U.S. crude fell 0.3% to $56.96 a barrel. Brent crude, used to price international oils, was little changed at $67.07 a barrel.

Wholesale gasoline rose 1% to $1.61 a gallon. Heating oil rose 0.9% to $2.04 a gallon. Natural gas climbed 2.3% to $2.70 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.69% from 2.65%.

The dollar fell to 110.68 yen from 110.84 yen. The euro weakened to $1.1336 from $1.1350.

Gold slid 1.5% to $1,327.80 an ounce. Silver declined 2.3% to $15.80 an ounce. Copper fell 0.8% to $2.90 a pound.