NEW YORK -- Losses for health care companies and banks left U.S. stocks lower Thursday, although a late push for technology and industrial companies helped the market avoid a steeper decline.
After a weak finish the day before, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped as much as 393 points Thursday morning. Thanks to another gain in Boeing, it ended slightly higher.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index slid 5.94 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,629.73. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 5.17 points to 23,930.15. The Nasdaq composite fell 12.75 points, or 0.2 percent, to 7,088.15. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks fell 8.36 points, or 0.5 percent, to 1,546.56.
Companies including insurer AIG, prescription drug distributor Cardinal Health, and music streaming service Spotify suffered big losses. Banks declined along with interest rates.
Electric-car maker Tesla fell after it reported another big loss and Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk mocked some questions from analysts during the company's conference call.
Microsoft and Cisco Systems helped technology companies to some modest gains. But investors haven't found much to get excited about the past couple of days as they worry about trade tensions and the possibility that growth in company profits has peaked.
"Investors went from being very optimistic to being more concerned about what could happen next," said Kate Warne, investment strategist for Edward Jones. "People are getting far ahead of themselves."
About three-fourths of S&P 500 companies had reported results as of Wednesday, according to CFRA Research, and their profits and revenues have consistently blown past Wall Street's expectations. But the market isn't acting like it: since April 12, the day before big banks started reporting their results, the S&P 500 is down 1.3 percent.
Warne said she still expects stocks to rise this year because of continued economic and profit growth. But she said it might take weeks or even months before that happens.
Banks fell in tandem with interest rates as bond prices climbed. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.95 percent from 2.97 percent. Lower bond yields mean banks can't make as much money from lending.
Cardinal Health, which distributes prescription drugs, also had a smaller-than-expected profit and lowered its forecast for the rest of the year. Cardinal said its Cordis cardiovascular products business ran into supply chain problems and also paid a higher-than-expected tax rate. The stock gave up 21.4 percent to $50.80.
Medical device maker Hologic dropped 6.9 percent to $36.91 after it wrote down the value of its Cynosure business by about $732 million. It paid $1.57 billion to buy the company a little more than a year ago.
Benchmark U.S. crude recovered from an early loss and rose 0.7 percent to $68.43 barrel in New York. That was its highest price since December 2014. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 0.4 percent to $73.62 a barrel in London.
Business on 05/04/2018