US close: Markets finish lower as sentiment dips
US stocks finished lower on Tuesday, with worries about a slowdown in China and some dire housing figures taking their toll on sentiment after the first trading day of the truncated week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the session down 1.22% at 24,404.48, the S&P 500 lost 1.42% to 2,632.90, and the Nasdaq 100 was off 2.03% at 6,646.81.
Investors on Wall Street got their first chance to react to data out of China on Monday which showed that economic growth slowed to 6.6% in 2018 - the slowest pace since 1990.
Also adding to the downbeat mood was the IMF's decision, the day before, to cut its global growth forecast for 2019 to its lowest level in three years.
“It would appear that investors took advantage of light bank holiday trade on Monday to lock in some profits following a very encouraging post-Christmas period,” said Oanda analyst Craig Erlam earlier.
“This comes as talks between US and Chinese officials appear to be progressing well, with the 90-day deadline a little over a month away.
“Trump may have denied that the US is considering lifting tariffs - following reports that Steve Mnuchin has suggested doing so in order to draw more concessions from China - but it would appear that there is a desire from within parts of the administration to get a deal done.”
Elsewhere in Sino-US relations, Toronto's Globe and Mail newspaper reported earlier that the US has told the Canadian government that it plans to formally request the extradition of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei.
Back in the US, the government shutdown moved into its 31st day as Trump and the Democrats remained at loggerheads.
On the data front, existing home sales ran at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.99m in December - their lowest rate since November 2015.
Sales of previously-owned homes crashed in December, closing out an already poor year for housing on a dismal note, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Sales were down 6.4% for the month, and 10.3% lower year-on-year.
The full-year sales tally for 2018 of 5.34m was the worst year since 2015.
In corporate news, Johnson & Johnson was trading 1.45% lower as its fourth-quarter sales beat expectations, while Travelers was 1.33% softer after the release of its Q4 numbers.
Oilfield services company Halliburton was down 3.07% despite its quarterly profits and revenues surpassing analysts' expectations.
Dow Jones - Risers
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $265.69 2.28%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $80.71 2.05%
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $184.45 1.91%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $177.11 1.28%
Walmart Inc. (WMT) $97.44 0.78%
Visa Inc. (V) $138.05 0.56%
American Express Co. (AXP) $99.83 0.34%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $112.34 0.34%
3M Co. (MMM) $192.19 0.29%
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $56.99 0.28%
Dow Jones - Fallers
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $153.30 -2.24%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $105.68 -1.88%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $48.27 -1.87%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $132.24 -1.71%
United Technologies Corp. (UTX) $110.88 -1.52%
Dowdupont Inc. (DWDP) $56.21 -1.40%
Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) $71.59 -1.16%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $197.65 -0.71%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $44.78 -0.56%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $122.36 -0.47%
S&P 500 - Risers
PG&E Corp. (PCG) $7.70 21.07%
VF Corp. (VFC) $81.77 11.62%
Schlumberger Ltd. (SLB) $43.96 6.26%
eBay Inc. (EBAY) $32.90 6.13%
Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (EW) $168.29 5.77%
Spectra Energy Corp. (SE) $13.05 5.33%
Amerisource Bergen Corp. (ABC) $79.71 4.77%
Kansas City Southern (KSU) $108.35 4.14%
SunTrust Banks Inc. (STI) $60.36 4.00%
Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (CFG) $35.13 3.78%
S&P 500 - Fallers
Stanley Black & Decker Inc. (SWK) $115.69 -12.79%
Frontier Communications Co. (FTR) $2.39 -8.78%
Tenet Healthcare Corp. (THC) $20.68 -8.10%
Carmax Inc. (KMX) $59.47 -7.92%
TripAdvisor Inc. (TRIP) $55.31 -6.32%
Alcoa Corporation (AA) $27.81 -6.02%
Range Resources Corp. (RRC) $10.88 -5.56%
Micron Technology Inc. (MU) $33.87 -5.29%
General Electric Co. (GE) $8.66 -5.25%
Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) $148.77 -5.20%
Nasdaq 100 - Risers
eBay Inc. (EBAY) $32.90 6.13%
Liberty Global plc Series C (LBTYK) $21.85 1.30%
Dollar Tree Inc (DLTR) $95.73 1.13%
Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) $65.39 1.07%
Liberty Global plc Series A (LBTYA) $22.39 1.04%
Verisk Analytics Inc. (VRSK) $116.30 0.52%
Fiserv Inc. (FISV) $78.19 0.48%
Biogen Inc (BIIB) $338.96 0.46%
Hasbro Inc (HAS) $89.06 0.24%
Idexx Laboratories Inc. (IDXX) $201.31 0.22%
Nasdaq 100 - Fallers
JD.com, Inc. (JD) $21.68 -6.79%
Baidu Inc. (BIDU) $160.39 -6.40%
Mercadolibre Inc. (MELI) $330.86 -5.65%
Micron Technology Inc. (MU) $33.87 -5.29%
Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) $148.77 -5.20%
Lam Research Corp. (LRCX) $139.89 -5.19%
Ctrip.Com International Ltd. Ads (CTRP) $30.96 -4.44%
Seagate Technology Plc (STX) $38.48 -4.35%
Western Digital Corp. (WDC) $37.56 -4.18%
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) $325.16 -4.11%