The Market Today
Provided by Schwab Center for Investment Research
With the current earnings lull providing little impetus for a further advance in equity prices, stocks declined for the fourth consecutive session, led by continued profit-taking in the relatively valuation-challenged Nasdaq. On the corporate front, Lowe's (LOW 7) reported a larger-than-expected drop in same-store sales growth, the U.S. Defense Department canceled a lucrative contract with United Technologies (UTX) and Boeing (BA 7,9,10,11,12), and Intel (INTC 5,7) revealed an IRS audit, but Qualcomm (QCOM 7) raised guidance, and Wal-Mart (WMT 5,7) said February sales are coming in at the high end of expectations. With stocks coming under pressure, Treasurys were higher in the absence of market-moving economic data. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1%, the S&P 500 Index was 0.3% lower and the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 1.5%. On the Big Board 1.4 billion shares changed hands, with 1.9 billion shares trading on the Nasdaq. Chip and computer hardware shares paced the broad-based decline, while industrial conglomerate and tobacco stocks were among the best performers, suggesting potential rotation into more defensive sectors with reliable dividend streams.
