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* Retail sales fall in Sept for first time in 7 months
* BofA, United beat earnings expectations
* Drug distributors seek to settle opioid lawsuits - report
* GM, UAW reach tentative deal
* Indexes: Dow up 0.07%, S&P 500 off 0.12%, Nasdaq down
0.31%
(Updates to late afternoon, changes dateline, byline)
By Stephen Culp
NEW YORK, Oct 16 (Reuters) - The benchmark S&P 500 stock
index edged lower on Wednesday as weak U.S. economic data and
simmering geopolitical tensions spooked buyers away from the
equities market, despite a string of generally positive
third-quarter corporate earnings reports.
Technology shares, led by Microsoft Inc MSFT.O , weighed on
all three major U.S. stock averages, pulling the S&P 500 and the
Nasdaq into the red. The Dow was nominally higher.
U.S. retail sales contracted in September for the first time
in seven months, according to the Commerce Department, in a sign
that cracks might be spreading from the manufacturing sector to
the broader economy. "The retail sales number has surprised people," said Peter
Tuz, president of Chase Investment Counsel in Charlottesville,
Virginia. "It's bringing up ideas that the economy might be
slowing down."
Uncertainty over whether the United States and China could
resolve their long-running trade dispute increased after the
U.S. House of Representatives riled Beijing by passing
pro-democracy legislation in support of Hong Kong.
President Donald Trump said he would probably not sign any
trade deal before he meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping at
the upcoming APEC Forum in Chile, but said a partial trade deal
was being formalized. "Part of today's market action concerns whether the
tentative (trade) agreement reached last Friday will move
forward or not," Tuz said. "We've got two months before
significant tariffs go into effect."
"Things haven't worked out the way they usually do when
earnings season begins and you focus less on the global macro
issues that drive the market so much these days."
Analysts currently expect S&P 500 third-quarter earnings to
have fall by 3%, which would mark the first year-on-year
contraction since the earnings recession that ended in 2016.
However, of the 43 S&P 500 companies to have posted
third-quarter results so far, 86% have come in better than
consensus expectations.
Bank of America BAC.N rose 2.2% after posting its
third-quarter profit beat due to growth in advisory fees and
loan book expansion. United Airlines UAL.O advanced 2.6% after the airline beat
quarterly profit estimates and increased its 2019 guidance.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 18.19 points,
or 0.07%, to 27,042.99, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 3.71 points, or
0.12%, to 2,991.97 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped
25.20 points, or 0.31%, to 8,123.51.
Of the 11 major sectors in the S&P 500, three were trading
in negative territory, with energy .SPNY and tech .SPLRCT
suffering the largest percentage losses.
In other stocks news, Eli Lilly & Co LLY.N dropped 1.5% in
the wake of a late-stage study which showed its experimental
pancreatic cancer treatment failed to meet the overall survival
goal. Drug distributors McKesson MCK.N , AmerisourceBergen
ABC.N and Cardinal Health CAH.N rose between 3% and 6%
following a report that they were in talks with state and local
governments to settle thousands of opioid lawsuits for $18
billion. General Motors GM.N rose 1.5% after the automaker reached
a tentative labor deal with the United Auto Workers union.
Netflix Inc NFLX.O shares were up 0.3% in advance of its
earnings report, expected after the bell.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a
1.11-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.09-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 12 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 31 new highs and 54 new lows.