NEW YORK — The stock market closed with a slight loss Wednesday after sales of new homes hit a record low and the Federal Reserve indicated that problems in Europe pose a threat to the U.S. economy.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 5 points, but broader indexes fell and losing stocks outnumbered advancers on the New York Stock Exchange. Treasury prices rose, pushing down interest rates. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to its lowest level in more than a year.
Stocks fell early in the day after the government said new-home sales dropped by a third to a record low last month. Sales fell to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 300,000. Economists polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast sales would drop to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 410,000.
The Dow lost as much as 66 points after the housing numbers came out. On Tuesday, an unexpected slide in home resales also hurt stocks. Existing homes make up a far bigger part of the market than new homes, but traders were braced for more bad news Wednesday.
“I think the market is, thankfully, already getting used to the idea that housing is going to fall off a cliff between the end of the homebuyer tax credit and now,” said John Canally, economist at LPL Financial.
The homebuyer’s credit expired April 30, and its absence is expected to be felt beyond the May sales figures.
Traders picked up stocks of companies that sell consumer staples because they are considered safer in weak economies. Procter & Gamble rose 1.1 percent. Kraft Foods also rose, but Fortune Brands, which makes doors, bathroom faucets and other goods used in homes, fell 1.4 percent.
The Dow closed up 4.92, or 0.1 percent, to 10,298.44 after being up nearly 75 points in afternoon trading. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 3.27, or 0.3 percent, to 1,092.04, and the Nasdaq composite fell 7.57, or 0.3 percent, to 2,254.23.
