Wall Street has worst day in two months – New York Report
Wall Street suffered its worst session in over a month yesterday as lower commodity prices weighed on energy and materials stocks and comments by a Federal Reserve policymaker hinted at an approaching interest-rate hike.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 1.44 per cent to end at 17,448.07, the S&P 500 lost 1.4 per cent to 2,045.97. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.22 per cent to 5,005.08.
The rout hit all 10 major S&P sectors and pushed the Dow and S&P 500 below their 200-day moving averages, which some traders believe portends additional declines.
Investors are keeping a watchful eye on whether the Fed in December will raise rates for the first time in nearly a decade, as is widely expected after recent strong jobs data.
New York Fed president William Dudley said: “It is quite possible that the conditions the committee has established to begin to normalise monetary policy could soon be satisfied.”
The energy sector sank 2.4 per cent. Chevron and Exxon Mobil both fell more than 2.5 per cent.
The materials sector lost two per cent, hurt by a 1.3 per cent fall in DuPont and a 2.5 per cent drop in Dow Chemical.
Retailers were a bright spot after Kohl’s reported better-than-expected quarterly net sales, sending its shares up 6.1 per cent. But after the bell, Nordstrom reported third-quarter results below its own expectations, blaming softer sales trends, and it slumped 16 per cent.
Cisco fell four per cent in extended trade after it posted its fiscal first-quarter results.