Wall Street slips heading into holiday
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wall Street’s major indexes dipped on Friday in low trading volume before the holiday weekend as several blue-chip stocks slipped, including Nike.
Nike Inc. shares fell 2.3% after the company forecast muted growth in current-quarter revenue, reflecting its struggles in the North American market.
UnitedHealth Group Inc. was down 0.8% after the health insurer agreed to buy Chilean healthcare company Banmedica SA BAN.SN for $2.8 billion.
Investors were winding down ahead of Christmas on Monday, when the market will be closed.
“It’s been a strong week,” said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia. “Whether the market is up a little bit or down a little bit is not indicative of larger trends .. It’s easy to push things around when not many people are trading.”
Indeed, major Wall Street indexes were on track to end the week higher, buoyed by a historic overhaul of the US tax code.
President Donald Trump signed Republicans’ massive $1.5 trillion tax overhaul into law on Friday and also approved a short-term spending bill that averts a government shutdown.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 28.23 points, or 0.11%, to 24,754.06, the S&P 500 lost 1.23 points, or 0.05%, to 2,683.34, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 5.40 points, or 0.08%, to 6,959.96.
For the week, the Dow rose 0.42%, the S&P gained 0.29% and the Nasdaq added 0.34%.
Wildly volatile bitcoin plunged below $12,000, losing around a third of its market value in five days, before rebounding to above $14,000. Companies that have been riding the bitcoin wave were hit hard by the cryptocurrency’s slump.
Long Blockchain Corp., Overstock. com Inc., Riot Blockchain Inc. and Marathon Patent Group Inc. tumbled between 2% and 15%. But even with Friday’s losses, their share prices are higher now than before the companies ventured into bitcoin.
Data on Friday showed US consumer spending went up in November and shipments of key capital goods orders increased for the 10th straight month, confirming strong economic momentum.
The benchmark S&P has climbed about 20% this year and is on track for its best performance since 2013 on solid corporate earnings, strong economic fundamentals, upcoming cuts to corporate tax rates and hopes of looser regulations.
Real estate led the S&P 500 in gains, with a 0.7% rise. Health was the biggest decliner, falling 0.3%.
Celgene Corp. shares fell 1.4% after the company’s follicular lymphoma regimen failed in a clinical trial.
The Bank of Israel on Friday set its representative rate for the US dollar at NIS 3.4850, for the Canadian dollar at NIS 2.7396, for the Australian dollar at NIS 2.6887, and for the South African rand at NIS 0.2740.
The central bank set the representative rate for the euro at NIS 4.1308, and for 100 yen at NIS 3.0732.