Stocks fall as S&P 500 breaks 4-day winning streak
Dow drops 153 points and falls back into the red for the year.
Stocks fell Wednesday, pushing the Dow Jones industrial average back into the red for the year and breaking the S&P 500’s four-day winning streak.
The market had been coming off a strong advance that had lifted the Standard & Poor’s 500 index 4.2% in four straight sessions of gains — including the market benchmark’s biggest rally in a year on Tuesday. If traders were looking for an excuse to lock in some of those profits, they got one Wednesday when news broke out of Canada about deadly gunfire in and around the country’s Parliament.
At the close, the Dow Jones industrial average was down about 153 points, or 0.9%, to 16,461, leaving it down 0.7% for 2014. The S&P fell 0.7% to 1927 and the Nasdaq composite index dropped 0.8% to 4383.
Despite the slide, the market is still in far better shape than it was exactly a week earlier, when a day of tumultuous trading briefly had the Dow down 460 points for the day and the S&P in the red for 2014 before a late-day recovery erased much of the losses. At Wednesday’s close, the S&P held 4.3% gain for 2014.
Among individual stocks:
• Yahoo (YHOO) shares rose more than 5% after the tech company released earnings late Tuesday that beat Wall Street estimates.
• Apple set a new intraday high, rising as high as $104.11, as its shares continued to rise after strong iPhone sales boosted the tech giant’s quarterly earnings.
Overseas, European stocks moved higher on rising speculation the European Central Bank may inject stimulus into the region to counter slowing growth.
“Considering the weakness in Europe, the prospect of an increase (in bond purchases) is real as it looks to increase access to financing, and even more stimulus,” said IG strategist Evan Lucas.
Britain’s FTSE index rose 0.4% to 6399.73 and Germany’s DAX index gained 0.6% to 8940.14.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei index surged 2.6% to 15,195.77 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index advanced 1.4% to 23,403.97.
Source: Usatoday- Stocks fall as S&P 500 breaks 4-day winning streak
