Stocks end choppy day of trading slightly lower
U.S. stock indexes struggled to find direction Wednesday, ending the choppy day of trading with a loss for the second straight day.
The latest market decline was modest compared with the previous day’s steep drop, but both were largely driven by a sell-off in technology stocks. Losses in Amazon, Netflix and other consumer-focused companies also weighed on the market Wednesday. Energy stocks fell in tandem with crude oil prices.
Those losses outweighed gains by drugstore chains, health care companies and other stocks.
Despite a crop of strong company earnings and market-boosting corporate deal news, traders continued to wrestle with the potential implications of negative headlines swirling around several big-name stocks, including Amazon, Facebook and Tesla.
“The news continues to be volatile, and the markets are just highly sensitive to it in a way that they weren’t sensitive to it last year,” said Tom Martin, senior portfolio manager with Globalt Investments. “We’ve forgotten that this is more like the way things are, that markets do react to news that comes in.”
The benchmark S&P 500 index lost 7.62 points, or 0.3 percent, at 2,605. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 9.29 points, or 0.04 percent, to 23,848.42. The Nasdaq composite slid 59.58 points, or 0.8
percent, to 6,949.23. The Russell 2000 index of smallercompany stocks lost 0.54 points, or 0.04 percent, to 1,513.03. More stocks rose than fell on the New York Stock Exchange.
Bond prices were little changed. The yield on the 10year Treasury held at 2.78 percent.
The major stock indexes wobbled between gains and losses for much of the day as investors weighed the latest developments with some of the market’s biggest names.
Facebook, which has taken a beating in recent days over privacy concerns, reflected the broader movement of the market, dipping into the red at times before eking out a small gain. The social media giant said early Wednesday it would give its privacy tools a makeover. The move is a response to criticisms over its data practices and the prospect of tighter European regulations in the coming months. The stock gained 81 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $153.03.
Software company Red Hat was the technology sector’s biggest decliner, sliding $8.22, or 5.3 percent, to $146.20.
“Tech has had such a tremendous run-up and has outperformed some of the other sectors,” said Erik Davidson, chief investment officer for Wells Fargo Private Bank. “There may be other areas now that are more attractive, and we’ve seen some strength recently in some of the more defensive-oriented sectors.”
Investors also fretted about Amazon after Axios, citing anonymous sources, reported Wednesday that President Donald Trump has wondered aloud if there was a way to “go after” Amazon with antitrust or competition law.