NEW YORK — News that the economy skidded to a near halt in the first three months of the year helped push the stock market lower on Wednesday.
Battered by harsh weather, plunging exports and sharp cutbacks in oil and gas drilling, the overall economy grew at a barely discernible annual rate of 0.2 percent in the first quarter, the Commerce Department reported early in the day. It was the poorest showing in a year and down from 2.2 percent growth in the fourth quarter.
Stocks stayed lower after the Federal Reserve downgraded its assessment of the economy and appeared no closer to raising its benchmark interest rate from close to zero.
The stock market, trading close to record levels, is struggling to maintain its upward momentum at the start of the seventh year of a bull-market run. The S&P 500 index has gained only 2.3 percent in the first four months of the year and is fluctuating between small gains and losses.
“We’re in a period of indecisiveness, where things could stay muddled for a while, without any really compelling case to either drive things back up … or, on the other hand, to send things back into a major pullback,” said Katrina Lamb, head of investment strategy and research at MV Financial, a wealth management firm.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 7.91 points, or 0.4 percent, to 2,106.85. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 74.61 points, or 0.4 percent, or 18,035.53 points. The Nasdaq declined 31.78 points, or 0.6 percent, to 5,023.64.
Just over half of the companies in the S&P 500 have now reported their first-quarter numbers, and analysts are forecasting that average earnings will grow by just 0.2 percent. That slowdown is being driven by a big drop in earnings at energy companies, caused by a plunge in the price of oil, as well as a stronger dollar, which is eating away at the value of overseas sales for global companies based in the U.S.
