NEW YORK — Wall Street extended its losses Wednesday as a rise in oil prices and a profit warning from United Parcel Service raised investors’ anxiety about the well-being of the economy.
Technology names were among the steepest decliners, with the tech-dominated Nasdaq composite index falling more than 1 percent.
The surge in oil prices weighed on transportation stocks and contributed to a pessimistic tone. Crude prices jumped after a government report showing U.S. inventories fell by more than expected last week. The rise hurt shares of airline and trucking companies, already struggling with high fuel costs.
UPS, the world’s largest shipping carrier, pointed to a weaker economy and higher fuel costs in trimming its forecast. Investors earlier this week received reports from aluminum producer Alcoa and chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices that have made the market uneasy about overall first-quarter results.
Joe Kinahan, chief derivatives strategist for the brokerage service Thinkorswim Group, said investors are nervous about the implications, including inflation, of higher oil prices. Still, he said, the relative calmness seen in the markets in recent sessions is impressive even as investors remain cautious about the economy.
“It’s the first week we have had in a while where stocks are trading on their own merit. That’s why we’re trading on oil,” he said. “It’s amazing how well the market has held in there with three days of not-good news.”
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 49.18, or 0.39 percent, to 12,527.26. Broader stock indicators also declined. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 11.05, or 0.81 percent, to 1,354.49, and the Nasdaq declined 26.64, or 1.13 percent, to 2,322.12.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers by more than 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where consolidated volume came to 3.43 billion shares compared with 3.66 billion shares traded Tuesday.
Bill Schultz, chief investment officer at McQueen, Ball & Associates in Bethlehem, Pa., said some investors have grown worried that profit warnings from companies like UPS could signal the economy is facing a tougher climb than some investors had speculated and that further disclosures could derail hopes for an economic recovery in the second half of the year.
“We know the first quarter is not going to be good,” he said. “People are looking for clues more, I think, for the second half this year.”
Despite the market’s declines Tuesday and Wednesday, investors don’t appear fearful, Kinahan said. He noted that the Chicago Board Options Exchange’s volatility index, known as the VIX, and often referred to as the “fear index,” remained below the important 25 level. It rose 0.47, or 2.1 percent, to 22.83 on Wednesday.
