U.S.
stocks fell on Tuesday as investors engaged in profit-taking to pull
major indexes from record levels, while the trend of modest moves and
low volume continued heading into the final trading day of ...
Tue, Dec 30, 2014, 7:01pm EST - US Markets are closed
NEW
YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell on Tuesday as investors engaged in
profit-taking to pull major indexes from record levels, while the trend
of modest moves and low volume continued heading into the final trading
day of the year.
The
day's losses were broad, with each of the ten primary S&P 500
sectors in negative territory. Utilities (.SPLRCU) - 2014's best sector
performer - led the decline with a drop of 2.1 percent.
Equities
have enjoyed a solid rally of late, buoyed by strong economic data and
the U.S. Federal Reserve's commitment to be "patient" about raising
interest rates. The S&P 500 gained nearly 6 percent over the prior
eight sessions and managed to score its 53rd record close of the year on
Monday.
The speed and scale of the rally provided
incentive to take profits, and amplified volatility is possible this
week with many market participants out for the holiday, which dampens
volume. The stock market will be closed on Thursday for the New Year's
holiday.
"It wasn’t going to take much to prompt the
decline, it’s probably more resting than anything else. We’ve had a
pretty significant move higher," said Stephen Massocca, managing
director at Wedbush Equity Management LLC in San Francisco.
"We’ve
marched straight up from 1,970 or so to about 2,100 so it’s only
natural that we are going to get a little bit of a pullback here."
The
Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) fell 55.16 points, or 0.31 percent,
to 17,983.07, the S&P 500 (.SPX) lost 10.22 points, or 0.49
percent, to 2,080.35 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) dropped 29.47
points, or 0.61 percent, to 4,777.44.
In the latest
economic data, consumer confidence rose slightly less than expected in
December, while U.S. single-family home price appreciation slowed less
than forecast in October.
NeuroDerm
Ltd (NDRM.O) soared more than 193 percent to $18.14 on heavy volume
after it said data from a mid-stage study suggested that a higher dose
of its Parkinson's drug could provide an alternative to treatments that
require surgery.
Civeo
Corp (CVEO.N), which provides temporary housing for oilfield workers
and miners, late Monday slashed its workforce and forecast revenue could
fall by one-third as slumping crude prices force oil producers to cut
costs. The stock plunged 52.6 percent to $3.92 on volume of about 56.2
million shares, the most active day in its history.
Volume
was light, with about 4.42 billion shares traded on U.S. exchanges,
well below the 7.06 billion average so far this month, according to data
from BATS Global Markets.
Declining
issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 1,806 to 1,262, for a
1.43-to-1 ratio; on the Nasdaq, 1,671 issues fell and 1,031 advanced for
a 1.62-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.
The
benchmark S&P 500 posted 25 new 52-week highs and 6 new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 107 new highs and 39 new lows.
(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
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