NEW YORK — U.S. stock indexes drifted lower on Wednesday as a seemingly relentless rally on Wall Street takes at least a pause.
The S&P 500 slipped 0.3 per cent for a second straight, modest loss. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 171 points, or 0.4 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.4 per cent. All three are still near their all-time highs, which were set on Monday.
It’s a slowdown following the U.S. stock market’s blistering run since hitting a low in April, fueled by hopes that President Donald Trump’s tariffs won’t derail global trade and that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates several times to boost the U.S. economy. The rally was so big that it raised concerns about stock prices shooting too high and becoming too expensive, particularly if the Fed does not deliver as many cuts to rates as traders expect.
Demonstrating the weight of high expectations, Micron Technology’s stock fell 2.8 per cent even though it reported a better profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The computer memory company also gave a forecast for profit in the current quarter that blew past analysts’ expectations.
Typically, such a performance would send a stock higher. But Micron’s stock came into the day with an atypical, stunning gain of 97.7 per cent for the year so far.
Freeport-McMoRan sank 17 per cent for one of the market’s larger losses after the miner said it expects sales of copper to be 4 per cent lower in the third quarter than it had earlier forecast. It also said sales of gold will likely be roughly 6 per cent lower than earlier expected.
On the winning side of Wall Street was Lithium Americas. It soared 95.8 per cent following reports that the U.S. government is considering taking an ownership stake in the Canadian company, which is developing a lithium project in Nevada with General Motors.
Lithium Americas, based in Vancouver, said it’s in talks with the U.S. Department of Energy and GM about drawing on a previously announced US$2.26 billion loan from the government. The Energy Department is making “incremental requests” to add more conditions before Lithium Americas can make its first draw, among other things, the company said.
Under Trump, the U.S. government has already taken a 10 per cent ownership stake in Intel, the struggling computer chip company.
Homebuilders also rose after a report said U.S. sales of new homes were stronger in August than economists had forecast and unexpectedly accelerated.
Lennar climbed 2 per cent, while PulteGroup and D.R. Horton both added 0.7 per cent.
All told, the S&P 500 fell 18.95 points to 6,637.97. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 171.50 to 46,121.28, and the Nasdaq composite sank 75.62 to 22,497.86.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe and Asia. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 1.4 per cent, and France’s CAC 40 fell 0.6 per cent for two of the bigger moves.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.14 per cent from 4.12 per cent late Tuesday.
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AP business writers Matt Ott and Yuri Kageyama contributed.
By Stan Choe