Stocks decline for a second straight day, and oil prices fall

Technology companies led U.S. stocks lower Wednesday, giving the market its biggest loss since early September.

Grocery stores and packaged foods and beverage companies also accounted for much of the decline. Energy stocks fell as the price of crude oil slipped further the day after its biggest loss since October. Banks and phone companies eked out modest gains.

Wednesday’s slide extended the market’s losses from a day earlier and added to its November pullback.

Unlike October’s broad market rally, fewer stocks and sectors have been notching gains this month, noted Bruce Bittles, chief investment strategist at Baird.

“The market is struggling here,” Bittles said. “It could mean that a lot of the good news on the economy, earnings and even the potential for a tax-reform bill are to a great extent already built into current prices.”

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 14.25 points, or 0.6%, to 2,564.62. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 138.19 points, or 0.6%, to 23,271.28. The Nasdaq composite fell 31.66 points, or 0.5%, to 6,706.21. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks fell 7.16 points, or 0.5%, to 1,464.09.

The major indexes are all in the red for the month, but they still are near record highs.

Stocks headed down from the get-go Wednesday as investors weighed a batch of new government data on inflation, retail sales and manufacturing.

The Commerce Department said retail sales rose 0.2% in October, while a closely watched report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York showed manufacturing expanded at a slower pace in New York but remained at a healthy level. The Labor Department said consumer prices edged up 0.1% last month, the smallest gain in three months. That followed a report earlier this week showing that wholesale prices jumped last month.

“The inflation data that was released this week are basically giving a green light to the Fed to raise [interest] rates,” said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial.

Investors were keeping an eye on Washington, where Senate Republicans began pushing their version of a major tax overhaul that would slash corporate taxes.

The uncertainty over the fate and timing of the tax bill contributed to growing market unease.

The VIX index, which tracks expected price swings in the S&P 500, jumped 13% on Wednesday, a three-month high. The index closed at a record low as recently as Nov. 3.

A sell-off in high-yield bonds may be another potential red flag for the market. An exchange-traded fund that tracks high-yield bonds, the SPDR Bloomberg Barclays High Yield Bond ETF, has declined 2.2% since Oct. 24 and is at its lowest level since March.

“That would suggest, as opposed to the economy steaming ahead, that some folks are looking for the economy maybe to slow next year,” Bittles said.

Tech stocks, which have done far better than the rest of the market this year, took some of the biggest losses Wednesday. Chipmaker Nvidia fell 2% to $209.98. Macom Technology Solutions Holdings slumped 18% to $30.02 after the chipmaker’s latest quarterly results fell short of analyst expectations.

IBM fell 1.2% to $147.10 after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway disclosed that it sold another chunk of the tech company’s stock.

Companies that make consumer products also were big decliners. General Mills slid 2.9% to $52.53.

Target slumped 9.9% to $54.16 after the retailer issued a weak profit forecast for the quarter that includes the holiday season. The stock was the biggest decliner in the S&P 500.

Investors bid up shares in banks and other financial companies. Bank of America climbed 2.1% to $26.79.

In extended trading, Procter & Gamble rose 3% after activist investor Nelson Peltz said that an independent vote count shows he actually won election to the company’s board of directors, in contrast to what P&G announced last month. P&G said the latest count’s results are still preliminary and could be challenged. During regular trading, P&G fell 0.7% to $88.23.

Crude oil prices pared some of their early losses but still finished lower.

Benchmark U.S. crude fell 37 cents, or 0.7%, to settle at $55.33 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, used to price international oils, fell 34 cents, or 0.5%, to $61.87 a barrel in London.

A report from the International Energy Agency pointing to strong production growth in the years ahead, particularly in the U.S., has weighed on oil prices this week. That has pulled down energy stocks. Halliburton shares dropped 2.9% to $41.69 on Wednesday.

In other energy futures trading, wholesale gasoline fell 2 cents to $1.74 a gallon. Heating oil was little changed at $1.91 a gallon. Natural gas fell 2 cents to $3.08 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Gold fell $5.20 to $1,277.70 an ounce. Silver slid 10 cents to $16.97 an ounce. Copper fell 1 cent to $3.06 a pound.

The dollar fell to 112.89 yen from 113.40 yen. The euro stayed at $1.1794.

Major stock indexes in Europe also closed lower. Germany’s DAX fell 0.4%, the CAC 40 in France lost 0.3%, and the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares slid 0.6%.

Earlier in Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index tumbled 1.6% as manufacturers’ shares were stung by a stronger yen. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1%, and the Kospi of South Korea declined 0.3%. Australia’s S&P ASX 200 fell 0.6%.

UPDATES:

3 p.m.: This article was updated with closing prices, context and analyst comments.

1:20 p.m.: This article was updated with the close of markets.

This article was originally published at 9:45 a.m.