Wall St dips as fears build over earnings – New York Report
US STOCKS dipped yesterday as fears increased that the strong dollar and lower oil prices will hurt US first-quarter earnings.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 80.61 points, or 0.45 per cent, to 17,977.04, the S&P 500 lost 9.63 points, or 0.46 per cent, falling to 2,092.43 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 7.73 points, or 0.15 per cent, to 4,988.25.
The Nasdaq briefly traded above 5,000 and came within 110 points of its all-time intraday high.
Shares of General Electric dropped 3.1 per cent to $27.63 after rallying on Friday, when it said there was potential to return more than $90bn (£61.33bn) to investors through 2018.
Apple shares dipped 0.2 per cent to $126.85, reversing earlier gains that followed reports the Apple Watch may have received about a million orders in its debut. Netflix shares rose 4.4 per cent at $474.68. The video streaming company said on Friday it was seeking to increase its share authorisation by nearly 30 times as a possible first step towards a stock split.
Corporate earnings kick into high gear this week. Estimates for first-quarter S&P 500 results have fallen sharply since 1 January, with earnings for the period expected to have declined 2.9 per cent from a year ago, Thomson Reuters data showed.
“I think there is some trepidation about what the earnings announcements are going to look like and so investors are cautious,” said John Carey, portfolio manager at Pioneer Investment Management in Boston, which has about $220bn in assets under management.