Late-Day Pullback Leads To Lower Close On Wall Street - U.S. Commentary

(RTTNews) - After showing a lack of direction for much of the session, stocks came under pressure going into the close of trading on Wednesday to finish the session firmly in the red. With the drop, the Dow and the S&P 500 pulled back further off the two-month closing highs set on Monday.

The major averages ended the session just off their worst levels of the day. The Dow dipped 48.50 points or 0.3 percent to 17,168.61, the Nasdaq slid 40.85 points or 0.8 percent to 4,840.12 and the S&P 500 fell 11.83 points or 0.6 percent to 2,018.94.

The lower close on Wall Street seemed to reflect concerns about corporate earnings and the outlook for the global economy.

Online media giant Yahoo (YHOO) showed a steep drop on the day after reporting slightly weaker than expected third quarter results.

Shares of Chipotle's Mexican Grill (CMG) also fell sharply after the restaurant chain reported third quarter earnings that came in below analyst estimates.

On the other hand, shares of General Motors (GM) moved notably higher after the auto giant reported better than expected third quarter results.

Aerospace giant Boeing (BA) also moved to the upside after reporting third quarter results that exceeded analyst estimates.

Nonetheless, overall trading activity on the day was somewhat subdued amid a lack of major U.S. economic data.

Traders may have been looking ahead to tomorrow's reports on weekly jobless claims, existing home sales, and leading economic indicators.

Sector News

Gold stocks showed a substantial move to the downside on the day, resulting in a 3.9 percent drop by the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index. The weakness in the sector came as gold for December delivery fell $10.40 to $1,167.10 an ounce.

Significant weakness was also visible among natural gas stocks, which also moved lower along with the associated commodity. The NYSE Arca Natural Gas Index tumbled 3.4 percent, as natural gas for November delivery slid $0.072 to $2.404 per million BTUs.

Electronic storage, brokerage, airline and internet stocks also saw considerable weakness, moving lower along with most of the other major sectors.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in another mixed performance during trading on Wednesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index surged up by 1.9 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index plunged by 3.1 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all ended the day on the upside. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index crept up by 0.1 percent, the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.5 percent and the German DAX Index advanced by 0.9 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries rebounded following the weakness seen in the previous session. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, fell 4.1 basis points to 2.030 percent.

Looking Ahead

Economic data may attract attention on Thursday along with earnings news from 3M (MMM), Caterpillar (CAT), Dow Chemical (Dow), Eli Lilly (LLY), McDonald's (MCD), and United Continental (UAL).