Tech stocks, Equifax skid as rest of Wall Street is little changed
Technology and energy company shares skidded Friday while banks and insurers recovered some of their recent losses, leaving major U.S. stock indexes little changed on the day and slightly lower for the week.
Credit monitoring company Equifax plunged after it disclosed a data breach that affects 143 million Americans. Competitors TransUnion and Experian also fell, while data security companies such as Symantec jumped as investors expected they will get more business.
Equifax, which hit all-time highs last month, tumbled $19.49, or 13.7%, to $123.23. Symantec jumped $1.03, or 3.4%, to $31.63, and competitor FireEye rose 24 cents, or 1.5%, to $16.01.
Grocery stores and food companies slumped as Kroger said stiff competition forced it to cut prices. Target also said it is lowering prices.
Hurricane Irma continued to devastate islands in the Caribbean. The enormous storm killed at least 21 people, a total that is expected to rise as rescuers continue to search. It also left thousands of people homeless, and more than 1 million people in Florida and Georgia have been ordered to evacuate. Irma is expected to hit Florida over the weekend with winds surpassing 130 mph.
Experts think the storms will slow down U.S. economic growth in the third quarter. Though that’s likely to be temporary, David Chalupnik, head of equities at Nuveen Asset Management, said the effect on the stock market could linger because it will be hard for investors to tell how much of any individual company’s problems are caused by the weather.
Chalupnik said insurance companies, cruise lines and oil refiners based on the Gulf Coast or in the Southeast could take losses and that bad debt at credit card companies will increase. Since the storm will push the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates lower for a bit longer, that will hurt banks by keeping interest rates low on loans, he added.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 3.67 points, or 0.1%, to 2,461.43. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 13.01 points, or 0.1%, to 21,797.79. The Nasdaq composite dropped 37.68 points, or 0.6%, to 6,360.19.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks rose 0.76 points, or 0.1%, to 1,399.43.
Insurer Chubb rose $5.97, or 4.4%, to $140.85, and XL Group regained $2.13, or 5.8%, to $38.61. Still, investors expect the industry to take steep losses from Irma and Hurricane Harvey. Reinsurance companies, which sell policies that cover catastrophic losses such as those caused by storms and floods, are down about 10% since early August. Property and casualty insurers have also stumbled.
Grocery store chain Kroger said intense competition with Target and Wal-Mart forced it to cut prices in the second quarter, which hurt its profits. Making matters worse, after the quarter ended Amazon.com completed its purchase of Whole Foods and immediately cut prices on many items. Kroger didn’t change its annual forecast, but that projection doesn’t account for the hurricanes, which may hurt its sales.
Kroger dropped $1.71, or 7.5%, to $21.06. Supervalu fell $1.43, or 6.8%, to $19.66. Target shed $1.15, or 2%, to $57.27 and Wal-Mart gave up $1.25, or 1.5%, to $78.88.
Energy companies fell as benchmark U.S. crude skidded $1.61, or 3.3%, to $47.48 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, used to price international oils, lost 71 cents, or 1.3%, to $53.78 a barrel in London.
Wholesale gasoline declined 1 cent to $1.65 a gallon. Heating oil fell 2 cents to $1.77 a gallon. Natural gas sank 9 cents, or 3.1%, to $2.89 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Bond prices dipped. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 2.06% from 2.05%. Banks traded a bit higher. They had taken sharp losses on Thursday as bond yields and interest rates dropped.
Gold rose 90 cents to $1,351.20 an ounce. Silver added 1 cent to $18.12 an ounce.
The dollar fell to 107.79 yen from 108.65 yen on Thursday. The euro strengthened to $1.2028 from $1.2003.
Mexico’s Bolsa stock index fell 0.7% after a powerful earthquake hit near the southern coast. Authorities said least 58 people were killed.
UPDATES:
1:40 p.m.: This article has been updated with the market’s close.
This article was originally published at 6:50 a.m.
