US close: S&P 500 caps seven-day losing streak

US stocks continued to move lower at the start of November, capping a seven-day losing streak, a rare occurrence, although they managed to finish off the session lows hit just after the central bank announced that the case for a rate hike had strengthened, which many observers appeared to take as a signal that a tightening move in December was now more likely.

Recent tracking poll results showing a dwindling lead for Hillary Clinton in the race for the White House were widely credited as the trigger for the recent move lower on Wall Street.

Indeed, a number of analysts said only a negative market reaction to an event such as an election victory for Donald Trump now stood in the way of a December hike.

Against that bakcdrop, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.43% or 77.46 points to 17,959.14 points, the S&P 500 declined 0.65% or 13.78 points to 2,097.94 points and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.93% or 48.01 points to end the day at 5,105.58 points.

Over the past 20 years, the S&P 500 had only notched up seven consecutive days of losses on four occasions, according to Bloomberg data.

Following two days of meetings, the Federal Open Market Committee opted to stay put on policy, as was expected, but said the case for a hike had strengthened.

"The Committee judges that the case for an increase in the federal funds rate has continued to strengthen but decided, for the time being, to wait for some further evidence of continued progress toward its objectives," the FOMC said in its policy statement.

"We fully expect this evidence [that the Fed is moving closer to its goals for unemployment and inflation] to emerge over the next six weeks, so only a shock - the election of Trump, or an external geopolitical or market event - can now prevent a December hike," Ian Shepherdson, chief US economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics said in a research note sent to clients.

By the end of the day, Fed funds futures were assigning 66.8% odds to a 25 basis point rate hike in December, versus 68.4% in the previous session, according to the CME´s Fed Watch tool.

According to Bloomberg calculations, the probability stood at 78% versus 68% on 1 November.

Oil prices retreated as doubts spread over producers cutting output and as the Energy Information Administration said US crude oil inventories rose by 14.4m barrels last week.

West Texas Intermediate weakened by 98 cents to trade at $45.34 a barrel by the closing bell.

A poll released late on Tuesday by ABC News/Washington Post showed Republican nominee Donald Trump taking a one-point lead over Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Think Markets, said: “What is overshadowing the markets right now is surprise news that Trump has lead in the polls once again and this race for the presidency is going to be tight. Investors have abandoned the ship when it comes to the equity market and it is more about the safe haven trade. Hence we are seeing the volatility index moving higher and precious metal.

“In the short term, we are expecting markets to continue their downward trend and things could be a lot more vile if Trump becomes the president as stock markets have already shown who they want in office.”

On the data front, figures from ADP revealed that private sector employment rose less than expected in October.

Employers added 147,000 jobs last month, missing expectations for a 165,000 increase. Meanwhile, the September figure was revised up to show 202,000 jobs were added, compared to a previous estimate of 154,000.

The report comes ahead of the highly-anticipated non-farm payrolls report on Friday.

In corporate news, shares in electric and driverless carmaker Tesla fell 1.45% after chief executive Elon Musk made a sales pitch on Tuesday for the SolarCity Corp purchase.

Shares in Alibaba slumped 2.61% even after the Chinese e-commerce giant beat expectations, reporting a 55% increase in second quarter revenue to 34.3bn yuan ($5bn), ahead of the 33.9bn yuan forecast.

Beauty manufacturer Estée Lauder shares fell 5.45% as it also beat quarterly estimates as it earned 84 cents per share, more than the consensus forecast of 80 cents. Revenue rose slightly by 1.05% to $2.87bn.

Stock in Facebook cratered nearly 7% in after-hours trading after the company said a slowdown in revenuew growth would extend into the following year.

From a sector standpoint the worst performance was seen in the following industrial groups: Coal (-8.63%), Non-ferrous metals (-4.75%) and Platinum&Precious metals (-4.39%).

Dow Jones - Risers

3M Co. (MMM) $165.73 0.90%
Home Depot Inc. (HD) $120.29 0.33%
Intel Corp. (INTC) $34.60 0.23%
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) $69.45 0.22%
Nike Inc. (NKE) $49.72 0.20%
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $112.39 0.12%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $111.59 0.09%
E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. (DD) $68.36 -0.12%
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) $86.74 -0.13%
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $42.05 -0.17%

Dow Jones - Fallers

Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) $46.94 -1.51%
Pfizer Inc. (PFE) $30.63 -1.42%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $81.11 -1.37%
General Electric Co. (GE) $28.49 -1.35%
Visa Inc. (V) $80.58 -1.27%
American Express Co. (AXP) $65.45 -1.21%
Boeing Co. (BA) $140.75 -1.17%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $105.39 -1.02%
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) $176.58 -0.83%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $58.84 -0.78%

S&P 500 - Risers

Amerisource Bergen Corp. (ABC) $75.96 8.84%
Henry Schein Inc. (HSIC) $156.09 6.15%
Zoetis Inc (ZTS) $50.11 6.05%
McKesson Corp. (MCK) $135.83 5.07%
Devon Energy Corp. (DVN) $39.55 4.93%
Noble Energy Inc. (NBL) $36.85 4.84%
Anthem Inc (ANTM) $122.99 4.74%
Kroger Co. (KR) $32.22 4.64%
Express Scripts Holding Co (ESRX) $69.82 3.82%
Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP) $89.98 3.52%

S&P 500 - Fallers

Frontier Communications Co. (FTR) $3.39 -13.74%
GameStop Corp. (GME) $20.93 -11.16%
Cerner Corp. (CERN) $53.15 -7.31%
TEGNA Inc (TGNA) $18.46 -7.24%
NRG Energy Inc. (NRG) $9.89 -6.96%
Estee Lauder Co. Inc. (EL) $81.60 -5.45%
Pioneer Natural Resources Co. (PXD) $171.27 -5.36%
Sempra Energy (SRE) $99.36 -5.24%
Allergan plc (AGN) $197.89 -5.16%
United States Steel Corp. (X) $17.82 -4.76%

Nasdaq 100 - Risers

Henry Schein Inc. (HSIC) $156.09 6.15%
Express Scripts Holding Co (ESRX) $69.82 3.82%
Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP) $89.98 3.52%
Dentsply International Inc. (XRAY) $59.74 2.29%
Broadcom Limited (AVGO) $172.56 2.23%
Tractor Supply Company (TSCO) $65.65 1.85%
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) $79.12 1.64%
Verisk Analytics Inc. (VRSK) $82.21 1.57%
Charter Communications Inc. (CHTR) $252.91 1.34%
Shire Plc Ads (SHPG) $166.64 1.29%

Nasdaq 100 - Fallers

Cerner Corp. (CERN) $53.15 -7.31%
Dish Network Corp. (DISH) $55.10 -3.65%
Western Digital Corp. (WDC) $55.20 -3.56%
Incyte Corp. (INCY) $87.18 -3.16%
Seagate Technology Plc (STX) $32.65 -3.14%
Sba Communications Corp. (SBAC) $107.43 -3.12%
TripAdvisor Inc. (TRIP) $61.63 -2.90%
Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ALXN) $127.74 -2.80%
Illumina Inc. (ILMN) $135.66 -2.75%
Baidu Inc. (BIDU) $168.78 -2.71%