Dow dips, techs try for recoveryBlue chips struggle after mixed retail sales, warnings from several mortgage lenders; tech-fueled Nasdaq evens out; jump in oil prices boosts oil stocksNEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Tech and commodity stocks led a market recovery attempt Thursday afternoon, but the Dow remained in the red, amid lingering questions about January retail sales and the latest signs of a slowdown in the housing market. The Dow Jones industrial average (down 23.95 to 12,642.92, Charts) lost about 0.3 percent with 35 minutes left in the session. The broader S&P 500 (down 1.48 to 1,448.54, Charts) index lost a few points after ending the previous session at a fresh 6-1/2-year high. The Nasdaq (down 0.59 to 2,489.91, Charts) composite was little changed, recovering from morning declines. The major gauges had slipped through most of the session, before finding a little momentum in the afternoon amid a rise in oil and gold prices. Often, a run up in commodities triggers selling, but in the case of Thursday's session, it sparked an advance in oil sector and metal and mining stocks, which in turn helped the broader market. Tech stocks had rallied Wednesday and that sector again showed some momentum Thursday afternoon, with strength in Internet and computer hardware shares helping to keep the Nasdaq near the unchanged line. Thursday brought an onslaught of January retail sales, which ran the gamut from weak to strong, suggesting a decent, but not remarkable post-Christmas period for the nation's chain stores. Among the standouts, discount retailer Costco Wholesale (down $0.35 to $56.78, Charts) posted a smaller-than-expected rise of 2 percent in same-stores sales, a retail measure of sales at stores open a year or more. Shares slipped 1 percent Limited Brands (down $0.19 to $29.10, Charts) posted a strong 11 percent rise in sales, but shares inched lower nonetheless. Clothing retailer Gap (up $0.56 to $19.81, Charts) posted flat same-store sales, versus a decline a year ago. That sent the stock about 3 percent higher. In addition, concerns about the impact from the collapse in the housing market were revived. Toll Brothers warned about its quarterly revenue and HSBC Bank and New Century Financial warned about problems resulting from defaults on home loans. The housing and loan concerns put a bit of a scare into investors. However, such concerns had only a limited impact, since investors have likely already factored in the impact of the housing market slowdown on the underlying stocks, said Todd Salamone, senior vice president of research at Schaeffer's Investment Research. Despite a little selling Thursday, the factors that have supported stocks for months remain in place, Salamone said. Housing, financial sectors hit In other news, Toll Brothers (down $1.05 to $33.38, Charts) warned that first-quarter homebuilding revenue and orders will fall sharply, and that it will take substantial write downs related to land it optioned for development but now is walking away from, due to the housing slump. A number of home building stocks declined in tandem, including Lennar (down $1.41 to $53.65, Charts) and Centex (down $1.22 to $51.86, Charts). In addition, New Century Financial (down $10.08 to $20.08, Charts) warned that it didn't account correctly for some of the home loans it had to buy back, sending shares 33 percent lower. HSBC Bank (down $2.26 to $89.96, Charts) warned that its bad debt charge for last year would be higher than expected, due to problems with its U.S. mortgage lending, sending shares lower. A number of mortgage lenders and other financial stocks declined. In other news Walt Disney (down $0.20 to $35.28, Charts) reported quarterly sales and earnings late Wednesday that rose from a year ago and topped estimates. Yet, shares declined in the afternoon, giving back morning gains. EMC (up $0.96 to $14.56, Charts) rallied in active New York Stock Exchange trading after the computer data storage company said it will spinoff roughly 10 percent of VMware, its computing virtualization unit. Market breadth was negative. On the New York Stock Exchange, decliners topped advancers by a slim margin on volume of 1.35 billion shares. On the Nasdaq, losers beat winners by a narrow margin on volume of 1.75 billion shares. U.S. light crude oil for March delivery rose $2 to $59.71 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Treasury prices rose, lowering the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to around 4.73 percent down from nearly 4.74 percent late Wednesday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions. In currency trading, the dollar rose versus the yen and slipped versus the euro. COMEX gold rose $5.50 to $662.80 an ounce. Earnings slowdown: Blame energy |
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