NEW YORK — Stocks sank most of the day Thursday after more signs of tension emerged in federal budget talks. They recovered some of the loss after a late report that President Barack Obama and the House speaker would meet.
The Dow Jones industrial average finished down 74.73 points, or 0.6 percent, to 13,170.72.
House Speaker John Boehner, speaking to reporters in Washington before noon, said that the White House was so resistant to cutting government spending that it risked pushing the country off the “fiscal cliff.”
The fiscal cliff is tax increases and government spending cuts that begin to take effect Jan. 1 unless Congress and the White House reach a deal to avert them. Economists have warned that the tax increases and spending cuts could eventually lead to a recession.
Shortly after Boehner spoke, Obama told reporters that a deal was “still a work in progress.” Asked about Boehner’s assertion that he was waiting to hear more from the president, Obama said only, “Merry Christmas.”
The Dow drifted lower all day and was down 98 points at its low. Then the Obama administration said that the president and Boehner would meet later at the White House.
Stocks still finished in the red. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index dropped 9.03 points, or 0.6 percent, to 1,419.45. It was the first loss for the S&P in six days, tying its longest winning streak since early August.
The Nasdaq composite index dropped 21.65 points to 2,992.16.
Two stocks fell for every one that rose on the New York Stock Exchange. Consolidated volume was in line with the recent average at 3.3 billion shares.
Energy, health-care and technology stocks fell the most, and consumer staples stocks were down only slightly. All 10 categories of stock in the S&P 500 index finished lower.
Best Buy shot up $1.94, or 16 percent, to $14.12 after a newspaper reported that the founder of the troubled electronics chain will make a bid of up to $6 billion for the company by the end of the week.
CVS Caremark climbed 96 cents, or 2 percent, to $48.50 after issuing a profit prediction for next year that was ahead of Wall Street expectations. The company also raised its dividend.
On Wednesday, the Dow declined for the first day in five. Stocks rallied in the afternoon after the Federal Reserve linked the outlook for its main interest rate to unemployment and inflation but the rally faded.
The Fed said it would keep interest rates low until the unemployment rate drops below 6.5 percent, a threshold the Fed believes may not be breached until the end of 2015. The rate is 7.7 percent today.
The Dow’s close Wednesday of 13,245 put it within a point of its close on Election Day. After the election, stocks slid 5 percent as investors began to fret about the fiscal cliff, but stocks have drifted back higher recently.
“I don’t think anyone expected the markets to hold up this well as we get closer and closer to the deadline,” said Randy Frederick, managing director of active trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab in Austin, Texas.
Business, Pages 26 on 12/14/2012