The three main U.S. equity indexes closed lower on Thursday as rising Treasury yields dented risk appetite while disappointing results from retail bellwether Walmart soured investors on the consumer sector and rallying oil prices fanned inflation worries.
Walmart WMT.O WMT.O shares tumbled 9.2% after the world’s largest traditional retailer missed Wall Street expectations for quarterly comparable sales as rising gasoline prices had shoppers reining in spending. The report dragged down the S&P 500 consumer staples .SPLRCS .SPLRCS and consumer discretionary .SPLRCD .SPLRCD sectors, which were among the weakest of the benchmark’s 11 major industry indexes.
Rival retailers such as Costco COST.O COST.O , Dollar Tree DLTR.O DLTR.O and Albertsons ACI.N ACI.N followed Walmart lower with losses between 1% and 2.6%.
Yields on the 30-year US30YT=RR and 10-year US10YT=RR bonds pared gains briefly after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he may again increase the volume of Treasury bonds the government will repurchase. But yields resumed their upward trend.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI .DJI fell 703.84 points, or 1.32%, to 52,759.21, the S&P 500 .SPX .SPX lost 66.82 points, or 0.87%, to 7,641.16 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC .IXIC lost 263.92 points, or 1.00%, to 26,067.17. The S&P ended about 2% below its most recent record close, reached last week, while the Nasdaq was more than 3% below its June 2 record finish.
Consumer staples fell 1.93% and was the biggest percentage loser among the S&P 500’s major sectors, followed by healthcare .SPXHC .SPXHC , which fell 1.93%. The S&P 500 consumer discretionary sector .SPLRCD .SPLRCD sank 1.8% with megacap Amazon AMZN.O AMZN.O among its biggest index-point drags. Big percentage decliners in the sector included Royal Caribbean Group RCL.N RCL.N and Carnival Corp CCL.N CCL.N , which lost more than 4% each as they are sensitive to fuel prices.
The S&P 500 energy index .SPNY .SPNY rose 0.4% as oil gained for the fifth consecutive session due to stalled U.S.-Iran peace talks and Middle East supply disruptions. Real estate .SPLRCR .SPLRCR was the only other sector gainer, adding 0.15%.
Meanwhile, cryptocurrency-related companies such as Strategy MSTR.O MSTR.O and exchange operator Coinbase Global COIN.O COIN.O rallied more than 7% a day after the U.S. called on Congress to pass a crypto bill.
Healthcare’s biggest decliner was biotech company Moderna MRNA.O MRNA.O , which finished down 23.5% after it surged nearly 177% on Wednesday. Deere DE.N DE.N shares closed up 6.9% after a full-year net income forecast raise from the world’s largest farm-equipment manufacturer.
Shares in Coty COTY.N COTY.N sank 9.2% after the CoverGirl cosmetics brand owner forecast current-quarter earnings below expectations and withheld its annual outlook, while Advance Auto Parts AAP.N AAP.N tumbled 24.5% after issuing a weaker annual sales forecast.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.94-to-1 ratio on the NYSE, where there were 156 new highs and 132 new lows. On the Nasdaq, 1,672 stocks rose and 3,217 fell as declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.92-to-1 ratio. The S&P 500 posted 16 new 52-week highs and 3 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 67 new highs and 104 new lows.
On U.S. exchanges about 9.61 billion shares changed hands compared with the 16.64 billion average for the last 20 sessions.
Reporting by Sinéad Carew in New York, Avinash P and Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Koyena Das; Editing by Pooja Desai and David Gregorio.
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