Market Report

Stocks drift, finish mostly lower

Trader Dennis Maguire, left, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, March 15, 2018. U.S. stocks are slightly higher Thursday morning as technology and health care companies move up after two days of broad losses. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Trader Dennis Maguire, left, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, March 15, 2018. U.S. stocks are slightly higher Thursday morning as technology and health care companies move up after two days of broad losses. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

NEW YORK -- Stocks finished mostly lower Thursday in another choppy day of trading after a midday rally faded. Industrial and technology companies rose, but smaller companies and chemical-makers skidded.

Without any major economic reports or further development on issues like tariffs, stocks drifted up and down. The market was coming off two days of losses, and while stocks briefly moved higher in the middle of the day, they couldn't sustain any momentum.

Toy-makers Hasbro and Mattel sagged as Toys R Us moved toward closing its U.S. stores.

The S&P 500 fell 2.15 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,747.33. It climbed as much as 13 points earlier but wound up with its fourth consecutive loss. The Dow Jones industrial average added 115.54 points, or 0.5 percent, to 24,873.66. The Nasdaq composite lost 15.07 points, or 0.2 percent, to 7,481.74. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks slid 7.69 points, or 0.5 percent, to 1,576.62.

Industrial companies bounced back after three days of declines that stemmed from worries about trade tensions. After big gains earlier this month, smaller, more U.S.-focused companies continued to slip. Drugstores and packaged food companies also declined. Technology companies finished with small gains, however.

Tech stocks did far better than the rest of the stock market in 2017, and they are the only part of the S&P 500 that has fully recovered from last month's sell-off. Lindsey Bell, an investment strategist at CFRA Research, thinks there is a good chance the industry will outpace the broader market again this year.

"Our economy in general and our world in general is becoming more connected digitally and this is an area that's going to continue to thrive as time goes on," Bell said. She added that chipmakers and service companies like Alphabet and Facebook should continue to do well.

Most of the companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange traded lower.

Mattel declined 34 cents, or 2.4 percent, to $13.84 and Hasbro fell 38 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $88.15. Hasbro and Mattel each get about 10 percent of their sales from Toys R Us.

The 70-year-old company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in late October and said in late January that it would close 182 stores. Mattel has plunged 22 percent since then and Hasbro has fallen 7 percent.

IBM and chipmaker Broadcom helped technology companies move higher. Thanks to their big gains in the past 15 months, technology companies now make up one-fourth of the total value of the S&P 500. It's been almost 20 years since any sector dominated the index that way: according to S&P Global, technology made up one-third of the index in early 2000, at the height of the dot-com boom.

Bell, of CFRA Research, said more deals are likely in the chip industry as both Broadcom and Intel look to buy other companies after the government's decision to block Broadcom's effort to buy Qualcomm.

Oil and gas pipeline partnerships including Williams Cos. dropped after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission announced changes to tax rules.

Benchmark U.S. crude added 23 cents to $61.19 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, used to price international oils, rose 23 cents to $65.12 per barrel in London.

Wholesale gasoline remained at $1.92 a gallon. Heating oil rose 1 cent to $1.89 a gallon. Natural gas fell 5 cents to $2.68 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Business on 03/16/2018

Upcoming Events