Clifford Beaumont: Wall street drops led by banks, tech companies
Clifford Beaumont has highlighted that US stocks ended lower on Tuesday after the blue chips hit two-month lows earlier in the session, in a broad drop led by a recent fall across banking and technology shares.
“Market focus shifted from geopolitical turmoil to earnings, but trading volume was the weakest for a single day since January. Poor tech earnings last week kept the group out of investors’ favour through the weekend.” said Daniel Collins, Senior Vice President at Clifford Beaumont.
At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) lost 110.47 points, or 1.1 per cent, to 19,876, the S&P 500 (SPX) shed 14 points, or 1.1 per cent, to 2,315 but the Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) edged lower by 44 points, or 0.78 per cent, to 5,810.
“Stocks lost momentum after market participants earlier in March sought safe-haven instruments due to global tensions, mainly out of Syria and North Korea.” added Patrick Morris, Head of Corporate Trading at Clifford Beaumont.
Profits of Nasdaq companies are estimated to have dropped 11.3 per cent in Q1 2017, the first double-digit percentage contraction since the Q1 2016.
Meanwhile, Amazon (O:AMZN) was the worst performer on the S&P 500, falling 5.2 per cent to $865.59 after BOAML lowered its price target to $950 from $970. The investment bank also decreased its price target on GM, sending the auto maker’s shares down 3.2 per cent to $170.13.
