U.S. stocks notched their second decline in as many days Wednesday, pulled down by a technology stock slump headlined by Apple and Microsoft.
Both companies delivered disappointing quarterly results or outlooks the night before, setting the stage for the sell-off in the technology sector.
“Apple is the biggest publicly traded company in the world, so it’s going to have a big impact on the indices,” noted Erik Davidson, chief investment officer at Wells Fargo.
The slide wasn’t that broad, however. Financial and utilities stocks were among the big gainers. And homebuilders got a boost from a report indicating U.S. home sales surged last month to the fastest pace in more than eight years.
The Dow Jones industrial average slid 68.25 points, or 0.4 percent, to 17,851.04. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 5.06 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,114.15.
The Nasdaq composite shed 36.35 points, or 0.7 percent, to 5,171.77. The tech-heavy index, which hit a new high Monday, remains the best-performing index for the year. It’s up 9.2 percent, while the S&P 500 is up 2.7 percent and the Dow is essentially flat.
Five of the 10 sectors in the S&P 500 index declined, led by a 1.6 percent drop in technology stocks.
The major stock indices declined from the get-go as traders reacted to weaker showings late Tuesday from Microsoft, Yahoo and Apple.
Yahoo posted a nearly $22 million loss driven by soaring commissions paid to its partners and flat sales. The stock slipped 49 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $39.24.
Investors have their eye on company earnings and outlooks to get a sense of how the economy is doing. Of the roughly 104 companies that have reported so far, about 70 percent of them delivered results that beat Wall Street estimates, according to S&P Capital IQ.
