Wall St. falls with chipmakers; housing data also a worry

FAN Editor
A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York
A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., October 23, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

October 24, 2018

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 on track for a sixth day of losses, as weak forecasts from chipmakers added to concerns over the impact on earnings from tariffs and China’s slowdown.

Indexes briefly added to losses in afternoon trading after the Federal Reserve said in its latest report on the economy that U.S. factories have raised their prices because of tariffs, although inflation has appeared modest or moderate in most parts of the country.

Also dampening sentiment, sales of new U.S. single-family homes fell to a near two-year low in September, the latest sign that rising mortgage rates and higher prices were hurting demand for housing.

“It’s been the one big weakness in the U.S. economy. That’s something that has people on edge,” said Ryan Detrick, senior market strategist at LPL Financial in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The benchmark S&P 500 has fallen in 14 of the 18 trading days this month, also hit by worries ranging from rising borrowing costs and bond yields to Italy’s budget and upcoming U.S. mid-term elections.

On the earnings front, chipmakers Texas Instruments and STMicroelectronics <STM.PA> <STM.N> warned of slowing demand. They followed disappointing forecasts Tuesday from industrial giants Caterpillar <CAT.N> and 3M <MMM.N>.

Texas Instruments <TXN.O> dropped 4.1 percent, helping pull the Philadelphia Semiconductor index <.SOX> down 3.5 percent. Advanced Micro Devices <AMD.O>, which reports after the bell, fell 5.8 percent and Intel <INTC.O>, due to report later this week, was down 1.6 percent.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> fell 145.69 points, or 0.58 percent, to 25,045.74, the S&P 500 <.SPX> lost 33.56 points, or 1.22 percent, to 2,707.13 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> dropped 170.44 points, or 2.29 percent, to 7,267.10.

Helping to limit losses on the Dow, Boeing <BA.N>, the largest U.S. exporter to China, rose 3.3 percent after it raised its full-year profit outlook.

The beaten-down S&P technology sector retreated <.SPLRCT> 2.1 percent. Microsoft <MSFT.O>, which also reports after the bell, declined 2.8 percent.

Results from S&P 500 companies so far have been strong, pushing up third-quarter profit growth estimates to 22.4 percent from 21.6 percent in the last 10 days. However, some weaker forecasts have pulled down fourth-quarter growth estimates to 19.5 percent from 20 percent, according to I/B/E/S data from Refinitiv.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 2.08-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 3.03-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 14 new 52-week highs and 57 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 14 new highs and 337 new lows.

(Additional reporting by Amy Caren Daniel in Bengaluru and Sinead Carew in New York; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Nick Zieminski)

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