Star-Bulletin news services
Wall Street ends
five days of wins
NEW YORK >> Wall Street retreated yesterday, ending a five-day winning streak, as investors refrained from making big moves ahead of third-quarter earnings reports. Technology stocks suffered some of the biggest declines, giving back some of their gains from the past week.
With two-thirds of the Standard & Poor's 500 companies set to report results in the next two weeks, analysts said investors were likely to stick with a cautious approach. Many investors are still holding on to a great deal of cash, but Wall Street observers remained optimistic.
"There are a lot of people out there, naysayers, who were anticipating big market declines in September and October and it hasn't come to pass yet," said Thomas F. Lydon Jr., president of Global Trends Investments in Newport Beach, Calif. "And here we are, nibbling on 52-week highs again."
Declining issues outnumbered advancers about 5 to 4 on the New York Stock Exchange. Consolidated volume was light at 1.583 billion shares traded. At the end of the trading day, the Dow Jones industrial average had lost 23.71 points, or 0.3 percent, to close at 9,630.90.
The broader markets also closed lower. The tech-dominated Nasdaq composite index lost 14.07, or 0.7 percent, closing at 1,893.78. The Standard & Poor's 500 index declined 5.47, or 0.5 percent, to close at 1,033.78. The Russell 2000 index closed down 5.09, or 1 percent, at 515.68.
The price of the Treasury's 10-year note closed up 1/8 point, while its yield fell to 4.24 percent from 4.27 percent Tuesday. Two-year Treasury notes were up 1/32 point and yielded 1.62 percent, down from 1.66 percent Tuesday.
Although technology stocks were broadly lower, having advanced solidly over the previous week, some blue chip tech companies saw gains. IBM rose 96 cents to close at $92.66 and Oracle Corp. gained 43 cents to close at $12.63.
Internet search engine Yahoo! reported it had more than doubled its earnings, beating analyst expectations by a penny a share. The company's stock was up 30 cents in after-hours trading after losing 14 cents to close at $38.79 in the regular session.
Alcoa's after-hours announcement Tuesday that it had beaten analyst expectations by 4 cents a share was warmly greeted, as the world's largest aluminum maker saw its shares rise 48 cents to close at $28.67.
Duke Energy Corp. gained 64 cents to close at $18.64 after the troubled utility said that its former president, Paul Anderson, would be its new chairman and chief executive.
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