NEW YORK -- Retailers took losses Thursday and pulled U.S. stocks lower in another day of mild trading before Christmas.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 23.08 points, or 0.1 percent, to 19,918.88. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 4.22 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,260.96. The Nasdaq composite dipped 24.01 points, or 0.4 percent, to 5,447.42. The Russell 2000 index of small-company stocks sank 12.53 points, or 0.9 percent, to 1,362.66.
Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond were pummeled after the home goods retailer reported weak results, and investors also dumped companies such as Target, Staples and Dollar Tree. Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba fell after it was sanctioned by the U.S. government, while companies linked to investor Carl Icahn climbed after the billionaire was named as a future adviser to President-elect Donald Trump.
Quincy Krosby, a markets strategist for Prudential Financial, said investors were concerned about the weak earnings for Bed Bath & Beyond and about the jump in interest rates since the election.
"When you have interest rates rising, at least initially, it tends to take a little bit from the discretionary [companies] because credit card payments move higher," she said.
With Christmas approaching, trading remained light.
A second day of losses pulled the Dow further from the 20,000 mark. It first reached 19,000 a month ago.
After it reported a far smaller profit and weaker sales than analysts expected, Bed Bath & Beyond dropped $4.18, or 9.2 percent, to $41.38. That wiped out most of the gains the company has made during the post-election rally. The SPDR S&P 500 retail ETF lost 3.5 percent.
Alibaba fell after the U.S. government put the Chinese e-commerce company back on a list of marketplaces that sell large amounts of counterfeit goods and is slow to respond when companies complain about knockoffs. Chinese regulators have made similar criticisms. Alibaba's U.S.-listed stock fell $2.45, or 2.7 percent, to $86.80.
Several companies linked to Icahn surged after the billionaire investor was mentioned as an adviser to Trump on regulatory reform issues. Icahn is close to Trump and advised him during the presidential campaign, and that's given some of his companies a large boost.
Icahn Enterprises rose $4.38, or 7.6 percent, to $62.30 and refining company CVR Energy added $2.25, or 10.5 percent, to $23.69. Icahn owns 82 percent of the voting power in CVR Energy. Icahn Enterprises has climbed 30 percent since the presidential election, and CVR Energy has climbed 85 percent.
Chocolate maker Hershey rose after it named Michele Buck as its next president and chief executive officer. She is currently Hershey's chief operating officer. Hershey stock rose $1.27, or 1.2 percent, to $104.44.
Benchmark U.S. crude gained 46 cents to $52.95 a barrel in New York and Brent crude, the international standard, rose 59 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $55.05 a barrel in London. That sent shares of energy companies higher.
Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note climbed to 2.55 percent from 2.54 percent.
Gold fell $2.50 to $1,130.70 an ounce and continued to trade around its lowest price since the beginning of February. Silver lost 11 cents to $15.87 an ounce. Copper held steady at $2.50 a pound.
Business on 12/23/2016