Without any big economic news or blowout company earnings, investors found little to get excited about Tuesday and sent the stock market lower for the second day in a row.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index slipped 9.54 points, or 0.5 percent, to close at 1,867.63. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 67.43 points, or 0.4 percent, to 16,351.25. The Nasdaq composite fell 27.26 points, or 0.6 percent, to 4,307.19.
The broader market barely budged for much of the day, then closed slightly lower. Investors didn’t see enough that they liked to drive up a market that hit three record highs last week.
“It’s a market that is looking for some direction overall,”said J.J. Kinahan, chief strategist with TD Ameritrade. “We’ve had such a nice run, I think you’re seeing people take some profits.”
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are both up for the year, though they lost some ground from the start of the week. The S&P 500 is up 1 percent, while the Nasdaq is up 3.1 percent. The Dow is down 1.4 percent so far this year.
General Motors, Men’s Wearhouse and American Eagle Outfitters were among the stocks in focus Tuesday.
GM dropped $1.91, or 5.1 percent, to $35.18 on news that a congressional committee is investigating the way the automaker and a federal safety agency handled an ignition switch problem in compact cars.
The stocks of teen retailers American Eagle Outfitters and Urban Outfitters took a beating.
American Eagle tumbled $1.11, or 7.8 percent, to $13.10 after the store chain issued a fiscal first-quarter outlook that fell short of Wall Street’s expectations. The company also reported an 89 percent slide in its fourth-quarter net income as winter storms weighed on sales.
Urban Outfitters fell $1.60, or 4.3 percent, to $35.91 after reporting its results.
The declines were broad. Nine of the 10 sectors in the S&P 500 index fell, led by energy stocks. The one sector that rose, consumer staples, eked out a gain of just 0.01 percent. Stocks of those companies, which make consumer staple goods such as soft drinks and detergents, tend to be in favor when investors are feeling cautious and want low-risk investments that produce steady income. Among consumer staples companies, PepsiCo rose $1.08, or 1.3 percent, to $82.81.
McDonald’s had the biggest gain among companies in the S&P 500 index, rising $3.58, or 3.8 percent, to $98.78. The stock is rebounding after slumping a day earlier.
J.C. Penney shares rose 25 cents, or 3 percent, to $8.67 after analysts at Citigroup upgraded the department store chain, praising the retailer’s efforts to recover from a botched overhaul that alienated longtime customers.
The Labor Department said Tuesday that employers posted 3.9 million job openings in January, up 1.5 percent from December, a sign that hiring should remain steady in coming months. However, the increase fell short of what the market was expecting.
Business, Pages 26 on 03/12/2014