US STOCKS-Wall St pauses after recent hike, Walgreens slips on profit warning



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* Basic equipment orders in the United States decrease in February

* The biggest difficulty of Walgreens on the main American indexes

* The actions of the airlines take off according to the optimistic forecasts of Delta

* Dow on 0.41%, S & P down 0.12%, Nasdaq up 0.06% (Updates early in the afternoon)

By Sruthi Shankar

APRIL 2 (Reuters) – The three-day rise in US stocks stopped on Tuesday, as gloomy forecasts from the Walgreens Boots pharmacy chain hit the pharma sector and economic data hardly mattered. calmed the fears of growth.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was dragged down by a 12.2% drop by Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. after the company lowered its earnings growth forecast for 2019 and released a quarterly profit that was not up to par analysts' estimates.

The S & P Consumer Staples Index declined 0.7%, resulting in a decline among nine of S & P's top 11 sectors. Its rival, CVS Health Corp, fell 3% while the actions of several drug wholesalers have also been affected.

The data showed that new orders for capital equipment manufactured in the United States declined in February and shipments remained stable.

Orders for non-defense capital goods, except aircraft, or basic capital goods orders, a benchmark for business spending programs, fell 0.1%. Economists polled by Reuters had predicted that it would remain unchanged.

The data follows a survey showing a surprise rebound in manufacturing activity in China and better-than-expected US figures, which allowed the S & P 500 to hit a six-month high on Monday.

"We have come to a place and time when we will need new evidence to move this market forward," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities in New York.

"Better than expected data could bring this market up, which was not the case for the number of durable goods today."

At 12:43 ET, the Dow was down 106.92 points, or 0.41%, to 26,151.50, and the S & P 500 down 3.47 points, or 0.12%, to 2,863 points. 72.

Nasdaq Composite advanced 4.89 points, or 0.06%, to 7,833.80, boosted by a 2.8% jump in Facebook Inc.

Despite pressures, the S & P 500 remains at 2.4% of the closing record reached at the end of September, hampered by the uncertainties of trade, the plans of the Federal Reserve to end the tightening of monetary policy, the chaotic exit from the European Union and concerns about corporate earnings growth.

As the first quarter's corporate earnings season comes in about two weeks, investors are preparing for what may be the first decline in US earnings since 2016. Analysts expect a decline 2% of quarterly profits, according to Refinitiv data.

Airline stocks pulled the better-than-expected first-quarter earnings guidance from Delta Air Lines Inc. Its shares jumped 6.5%, while the Dow Jones US Airlines index was up by 3.2%.

Dow Inc. was up 4.7% in its stock market debut following the DowDuPont split.

Falling issues outnumbered defenders for a ratio of 1.71 to 1 on the NYSE and a ratio of 1.30 to 1 on the Nasdaq.

The S & P index posted 31 new highs over 52 weeks and two new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 44 new highs and 33 new lows. (Report by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru and Amy Caren Daniel, edited by Shounak Dasgupta)

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