Stocks down on Wall street
A warning from Hewlett-Packard about future growth and concerns about weakness in the US banking sector today prompted investors to cash in profits following Wall Street’s four-session advance.
The Dow Jones industrial average ended the session down 105.60, or 0.9% at 11,070.24.
Investors also pulled back from the broader market. The Nasdaq composite index fell 15.92, or 0.7%, to 2,217.74, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 declined 13.54, or 1.06%, to 1,270.03.
Hewlett-Packard fell dlrs 1.34 to dlrs 28.71, and weighed down much of the tech sector after CEO Carly Fiorina said the company experienced soft sales in May, in part due to a global technology slowdown that is expanding beyond the United States and Europe. The company now expects revenue to be flat or down 5% for the fiscal third quarter that ends July 31.
Other tech shares that posted losses were Dell Computer, down 96 cents at dlrs 25.26, and Cisco Systems, off 78 cents at dlrs 20.76.
HP’s announcement was akin to the litany of profit warnings earlier in the year that encouraged investors to unload shares or at least remain on the market’s sidelines.
JP Morgan Chase fell dlrs 1.66 to dlrs 46.84 after it acknowledged in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Committee that second-quarter business has remained weak particularly weak for its investment banking operation.
In other blue chip sectors, such as oil and steel, profit taking was apparent. ExxonMobil fell dlrs 2.15 to dlrs 89.40, oil services company Halliburton fell dlrs 2.40 to dlrs 45, giving up gains made on Tuesday when Opec agreed to leave its official oil output unchanged for the time being.
Likewise, steel stocks fell after soaring on Tuesday when President George W. Bush said his administration would seek approval for limits on steel imports.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers slightly more than three to two on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume was 1.06 billion shares, compared with 1.11 billion on Tuesday.
The Russell 2000 index, the barometer of smaller company stocks, fell 3.90 to 512.58.
