Energy weighs on Wall Street as crude tumbles VS ON The Floor J- LO
Energy shares
fell their most in a month on Thursday as crude prices slid, leaving the
S&P 500 little changed despite gains in Wal-Mart and other consumer
stocks. The Dow and S&P 500 earlier
hit intraday highs, with Wal-Mart and Apple at record highs. Wal-Mart
was up 4.2 percent to $82.50 after posting a 2.9 percent increase in
third-quarter revenue. It earlier hit a high of $82.85.
Apple
rose as high as $113.45 to a fresh record while Microsoft, up 1.6
percent at $49.55, swelled to a market cap above $407 billion and
overtook Exxon Mobil as the second-largest publicly traded U.S. company,
behind Apple.
Exxon fell 1.1
percent to $94.39 as the largest weight on the S&P 500 energy
sector, which fell 2.2 percent. Brent crude fell under $78 a barrel
while U.S. crude tumbled 3.8 percent to $74.27, both at their lowest in
more than four years.
Despite the
fall in energy prices, gains in consumer stocks were small.
Discretionary items are expected to see more demand as lower gasoline
costs free cash from consumers.
"They
should be and they will be," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at
Wunderlich Securities in New York, about discretionary stocks going
higher.
"But while we're waiting for consumer stocks to rise, energy prices continue to be a headwind," he said.
The
Dow Jones industrial average rose 38.41 points, or 0.22 percent, to
17,650.61, the S&P 500 lost 0.94 points, or 0.05 percent, to
2,037.31 and the Nasdaq Composite added 4.31 points, or 0.09 percent, to
4,679.44.
J.C. Penney shares
tumbled 7.7 percent to $7.16 the day after it reported a
smaller-than-expected quarterly loss but said same-store sales were flat
and slightly cut its full-year revenue forecast.
DreamWorks
Animation shares jumped 10.9 percent to $24.81 after the New York Times
said toymaker Hasbro Inc was in talks to buy the Hollywood studio.
Hasbro shares lost 4 percent to $55.15.
U.S.-traded
BlackBerry shares jumped 8.5 percent to $12.23, the highest since June
2013, after it unveiled its new mobile-device management and security
platform and struck wide-ranging partnerships.
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