Wal-Mart climbs after results
* Blackberry up after partnerships announcement
* Dow flat, S&P off 0.3 pct, Nasdaq off 0.15 pct
NEW YORK, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Energy shares fell their most
in a month Thursday as crude prices slid, dragging on Wall
Street 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 all-time records.
Wal-Mart rose 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 1.2 percent at $49.35, 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 1.5 percent to $93.93 as the largest weight on
the S&P 500 energy sector, which fell 2.7 percent. Brent
crude fell to $78 a barrel while U.S. crude
tumbled 3 percent to $74.84, 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 increased
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
those stocks going higher.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 5.78 points, or
0.03 percent, to 17,606.42, the S&P 500 lost 6.57 points,
or 0.32 percent, to 2,031.68 and the Nasdaq Composite
dropped 6.85 points, or 0.15 percent, to 4,668.28.
The S&P 500 has rallied more than 9 percent from a six-month
low in October, buoyed by supportive economic data and corporate
earnings.
J.C. Penney shares tumbled 8 percent to $7.14 after
it reported a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss Wednesday but
said same-store sales were flat and slightly cut its full-year
revenue forecast.
Thomson Reuters data showed that of 460 companies in the S&P
500 reporting so far, 74.6 percent beat expectations, above the
63 percent average beat rate since 1994 and 67 percent for the
past four quarters. Earnings overall were expected to grow 10.1
percent over the year-ago period.
DreamWorks Animation shares jumped 12.3 percent to
$25.13 after the New York Times said toymaker Hasbro Inc
was in talks to buy the Hollywood studio. Hasbro shares lost 4.8
percent to $54.70.
U.S.-traded Blackberry shares jumped 7.9 percent to $12.16
after it unveiled its new mobile-device management and security
platform and struck wide-ranging partnerships.
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