Wall St slips on mixed earnings news – New York Report
A set of mixed tech and healthcare earnings a day ahead of today’s US jobs report pulled US indices lower yesterday.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 4.15 points, or 0.02 per cent, to 17,863.43, the S&P 500 lost 2.38 points, or 0.11 per cent, to 2,099.93 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 14.74 points, or 0.29 per cent, to 5,127.74.
The falls paused a rally that started in October. “We have had in the past month… a very strong market, a very sharp rebound, and that’s also probably causing some profit taking more than you might expect from the news that’s out there,” said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer of Solaris Asset Management in New York.
Energy shares dragged more than other sectors as crude prices fell. Qualcomm weighed the most on the S&P 500, falling 15.3 per cent to $51.07 after the chipmaker forecast first-quarter profit below expectations. Biotech Celgene fell 5.3 per cent to $120.46 after its quarterly revenue missed targets.
Overall declines were limited by a rise in Facebook shares following the social media company’s strong quarterly results, and a 0.4 per cent gain in the financial sector. Facebook shares jumped 4.6 per cent to $108.76.
Investors were looking to today’s non-farm payrolls report as they gauge whether the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in December.
The S&P energy sector fell one per cent, with Chevron off 2.3 per cent to $94.55 and Exxon down 1.4 per cent at $84.81.
HomeAway surged 25.3 per cent to $40.15 after Expedia said it would buy the vacation rental site for $3.9bn (£2.56bn). Expedia rose 2.4 per cent to $137.40.