A wave of selling that started in Japan, moved through China and then into Europe landed on Wall Street early Thursday, sending the major American indices solidly lower before a later-day rally pared away most of the losses.
The selling was triggered by worse-than-expected Chinese data showing manufacturing slowed for the first time in seven months, as well as continued worries about the U.S. Federal Reserve’s monetary policy meeting, which showed some members are concerned about continued QE.
When all was sorted out, the S&P 500 lost 0.29% to close at 1650.51, while the Nasdaq fell 0.11% to 3459.42. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which actually was off by triple digits at one point, managed to recover the most, losing just 0.08% to finish at 15294.50.
Helping prop up the Dow was Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), which led the index with a roughly 17% gain after reporting better-than-expected revenues for its first fiscal quarter.
Electric car-maker Tesla Motors (TSLA) moved ahead more than 6% upon announcing it has repaid a $465 million loan from the government nearly a decade ahead of schedule.
On the flip side, Cirrus Logic (CRUS) plunged almost 20% after warning about pricing pressures in the smartphone market, saying it expected tighter margins and lower revenues.
Walmart (WMT) fell nearly 1% after reporting weaker-than-expected revenues and profits, hurt in part by same-store sales that declined by 1.4%.
Lastly, shares of Ralph Lauren (RL) fell more than 2% after the company failed to meet lowered revenue forecasts, although earnings jumped 35%.
Three Up
- Lender Processing (LPS): Up 13% ($3.877) to $32.88.
- Mannkind (MNKD): Up 10% (62 cents) to $6.85.
- Pacific Sunwear (PSUN): Up 9.9% (29 cents) to $3.21.
Three Down
- Cleantech Solutions (CLNT): Down 14.1% ($1.37) to $8.33.
- Halcon Resources (HK): Down 8.9% (54 cents) to $5.52.
- Infinera (INFN): Down 7.7% (76 cents) to $9.15.
Marc Bastow is an Assistant Editor at InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
