Stocks fell Wednesday after the World Bank lowered its global growth forecasts. The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrials Average also are ran into strong resistance as the S&P edges near its 2,000 level and the Dow moved closer to 17,000.
The World Bank overnight shaved its global growth forecast for 2014 to 2.8% from its earlier outlook for 3.2% growth, citing the unusually cold winter in the U.S. and geo-political tensions in Ukraine. It also lowered its growth expectations for the U.S. this year to 2.1% from 2.8% as the impact from this past winter permeates the domestic economy.
Most industry sectors in the S&P 500 finished in the red, although energy stocks scratched out moderate gains as Crude Oil maintained its perch above $104 per barrel. Shares of Industrial companies had the worst performance among the 10 sectors, dropping almost 1.3% as a group.
Also Wednesday, airline stocks took the brunt in the day's selloff after Germany's Lufthansa (XETRA:LHAG) warned its profit this year and in 2015 will likely miss Wall Street expectations, taking the entire transport sector lower.
Here's Where The U.S. Markets Stood At Day's End
- Dow Jones Industrial Average down 102.04 (-0.60%) to 16843.88
- S&P 500 down 6.90 (-0.35%) to 1943.89
- NASDAQ Composite Index down 6.07 (-0.1%) to 4331.93
GLOBAL SENTIMENT
- Hang Seng Index down 0.25%
- Shanghai Composite Index up 0.12%
- FTSE 100 Index down 0.50%
UPSIDE MOVERS
- (+) ULTA, Q1 EPS of $0.77 beats by $0.03 per share. Revenue rises 22.5% year over year to $713.8 mln, topping consensus view by $13.86 mln. Sees Q2 revenue of $706 mln to $717 mln, exceeding estimates by at least $3 mln.
- (+) SYNA, Acquires Renesas SP Drivers for $475 mln and raises Q4 revenue outlook by $25 mln to a new range of $300 mln to $310 mln, topping analyst projections by at least $14.05 mln. Also issue upside revenue guidance for FY14.
- (+) NWBO, Reports interim results from Phase I/II testing of its DCVax personalized immune therapies, saying all of the cancer patients whose inoperable tumors were injected with DCVax saw improvements in their conditions, including one third of the patients now showing no live tumor cells in the injected tumor.
DOWNSIDE MOVERS
- (-) UNFI, Narrows FY14 profit outlook to a new range of $2.47 to $2.50 per share, trailing consensus view by at least $0.01. Earns $0.73 per share in Q3, up from $0.64 per share last year and matching analyst estimates. Sales rise 13.3%.
- (-) BAC, Reportedly reaches an impasse with the Justice Department in their talks for a multibillion-dollar settlement linked to the bank's mortgage investments, according to the New York Times, citing people briefed on the matter.
- (-) OREX, FDA extends new drug application review for the company's experimental weight-loss drug candidate by another three months to Sept 11 to work out a deal on post-marketing obligations related to NB32's effect on the heart.
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