U. S. stocks extended losses in late morning trade on Tuesday, weighed down by technology and industrial stocks, amid disappointing earnings and weak consumer confidence data.
The selling comes a day after Wall Street suffered its worst day of 2017, as investors turned wary about the consequences of President Donald Trump’s isolationist policies such as curbing travel to the United States.
The S&P 500 technology sector .SPLRCT led Tuesday’s decline, down 0.9 percent. Microsoft (MSFT.O) and Apple (AAPL.O) were the biggest drags.
“Many technology CEOs have come out publicly against Trump’s immigration policies and it certainly hurts the sector’s access to highly qualified labor,” said Brant Houston, portfolio manager at Atlantic Trust in Denver, Colorado.
Apple is scheduled to report after markets close on Tuesday.
A clutch of disappointing quarterly earnings across sectors added to the dour mood.
Package delivery company UPS (UPS.N) dropped 6.2 percent to $109.71 after posting a quarterly loss and issuing a full-year profit forecast that missed expectations. The stock weighed the most on the S&P industrials sector .SPLRCI.
Under Armour was the biggest percentage loser on the index. The sportswear maker’s gloomy sales and forecast also dragged down bigger rival and Dow component Nike (NKE.N) 1.3 percent.
A report from the Conference Board showed the consumer confidence index fell by a bigger-than-expected margin in January after hitting a 15-year high the previous month.
The healthcare sector .SPXHC rose 0.6 percent after Trump called for easing regulations for drugmakers, lowering taxes and prices of medicines.
At 10:56 a.m. ET (1556 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was down 154.55 points, or 0.77 percent, at 19,816.58, the S&P 500 .SPX was down 11.28 points, or 0.49 percent, at 2,269.62 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was down 28.47 points, or 0.51 percent, at 5,585.24.
Six of the 11 major S&P sectors were lower.
The dollar slumped 0.9 percent against a basket of six major currencies .DXY on Tuesday and was on track its worst month since March 2016. Trump’s top trade adviser Peter Navarro accused Germany of using a “grossly undervalued” euro to gain a competitive advantage.
Safe-haven gold XAU= rose 1.6 percent, the precious metal’s biggest one-day percentage gain since September.
A two-day meeting of the Federal Reserve’s policy-setting is also on investors’ radar. The central bank is not expected to raise rates, after a move in December, but investors will focus on how policymakers view the economy under a Trump presidency.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by 1,539 to 1,267. On the Nasdaq, 1,517 issues fell and 1,106 advanced.
The S&P 500 index showed six new 52-week highs and four new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 36 new highs and 34 new lows.
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