NEW YORK: The Dow’s five-day streak of records ended Monday as General Electric shares dived and the broader US market retreated at the start of a heavy week of earnings reports.
Investors are skeptical that earnings will justify soaring stock values, said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities. Nearly 200 companies from the S&P 500 are scheduled to report results this week, including General Motors, McDonald’s and Amazon.
“We’ve got things that are priced to perfection,” Hogan said. “We have to figure out which companies have gotten ahead of themselves.”
Hogan also said that Friday’s euphoria has subsided after last week’s Senate vote on a preliminary step to tax cuts in recognition that the measure still has a long way to go.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 0.2 percent at 23,273.96.
The broad-based S&P 500 fell 0.4 percent to 2,564.98, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.6 percent to 6,586.83.
General Electric plummeted 6.4 percent as analysts continued to digest Friday’s disappointing earnings report, with UBS downgrading the industrial giant and pondering the likelihood of a divided cut. Morgan Stanley also downgraded GE, while Bank of America upgraded the company.
Several high-flying technology companies stumbled, including Amazon, Facebook and Google parent Alphabet, all of which lost 1.5 percent or more. Apple and Microsoft ended little changed.
Hasbro sank 8.6 percent after it projected lower-than-expected fourth-quarter sales growth due to uncertainty from the Toys “R” Us bankruptcy. Rival Mattel lost 3.2 percent.
Sporting goods and sneaker company Under Armour slid 4.3 percent following a Wall Street Journal report that co-founder Kip Fulks was on sabbatical and that the company was considering exiting tennis and some other categories amid slowing sales.
Source: Brecorder.com
