Energy and auto parts companies’ stocks slump; tech shares rise

U.S. stock indexes were mixed Wednesday as energy companies skidded along with oil prices, but technology stocks rose and reversed a portion of their recent losses.

After O’Reilly Automotive reported weak sales growth in the second quarter, the three biggest losers on the Standard & Poor’s 500 index were all auto parts companies. Automakers slumped too.

An eight-day rally in U.S. crude oil prices ended with a thud, and energy companies took sharp losses. Retailers and small, domestically focused companies also struggled.

Technology companies bucked the trend, finishing higher. Those companies have hit a wall in the last month. Banks as wells as industrial and healthcare companies also rose. It was a quiet day of trading after the Independence Day holiday.

The Federal Reserve is trying to decide when it will start letting its $4.5-trillion bond portfolio shrink. Some Fed officials want to announce the start of that process within a few months, according to minutes from the central bank’s June meeting, while others want to wait longer.

Read more: Some Fed officials want to start reducing assets ‘within a couple of months’ »

“The Fed seems to be a little bit divided over what it’s going to do,” said Doug Burtnick, deputy head of North American equities for Aberdeen Asset Management. He said that makes investors put more emphasis on economic reports and other data.

The S&P 500 index rose 4.55 points, or 0.2%, to 2,432.54. The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 1.10 points to 21,478.17. The Nasdaq composite climbed 40.80 points, or 0.7%, to 6,150.86. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks sank 6.54 points, or 0.5%, to 1,420.15.

Benchmark U.S. crude dropped $1.94, or 4.1%, to $45.13 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, used to price international oils, sank $1.82, or 3.7%, to $47.79 a barrel in London. U.S. crude reached an annual low in late June, then jumped 11% over the next eight trading days.

Hess shares sank 4.5% to $43.36. Exxon Mobil fell 1.5% to $80.85.

O’Reilly Automotive dived 18.9% to $178.77 after it said sales were sluggish at its older locations over the last three months because of weak demand and the effects of a mild winter.

Advance Auto Parts slid 11.1% to $105.21 and AutoZone declined 9.6% to $516.83.

Those three companies have each plunged more than 30% this year as investors worry about the effects of slowing car sales.

Tesla dropped 7.2% to $327.09, its biggest loss in a year, as investors were disappointed with the company’s second-quarter production and delivery totals.

Ford fell 2.2% to $11.30. General Motors was down 1.6% to $35.01. Automakers had rallied Monday after they reported their monthly sales.

Payment processor Vantiv declined 2.4% to $61.02 on news that it will buy Britain’s Worldpay for about $10 billion. Worldpay enables businesses to accept credit cards and online payments, and it said Wednesday that the companies agreed on the key terms of an acquisition.

Payment technology company Square climbed 4.1% and PayPal rose 3.3%.

Monogram Residential, which owns and operates luxury apartment communities, jumped 21.3% to $11.89 after it agreed to be bought by real estate firm Greystar and a group of investors. The deal values Monogram at $12 a share, or about $2 billion.

Technology companies did relatively well, although they have taken sharp losses over the last month.

Chinese e-commerce company Baidu rose 2.1% to $183.83, and chipmaker Nvidia went up 2.7% to $143.05. The companies said they will work together on a group of projects intended to bring artificial intelligence technology to cloud computing, autonomous cars and home assistants.

Wholesale gasoline fell 3 cents, or 2.1%, to $1.50 a gallon. Heating oil fell 3 cents, or 2.3%, to $1.48 a gallon. Natural gas fell 11 cents, or 3.8%, to $2.84 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Bond prices edged up. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.33% from 2.35%.

Gold rose $2.50 to $1,221.70 an ounce. Silver fell 20 cents to $15.90 an ounce. Copper fell 3 cents to $2.66 a pound.

The dollar fell to 113.35 yen from 113.39 yen. The euro fell to $1.1340 from $1.1358.

The CAC 40 of France, the DAX in Germany and Britain’s FTSE 100 each rose 0.1%. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index and the Kospi in South Korea each gained 0.3%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.5%.

UPDATES:

2:45 p.m.: This article was updated with closing prices, context and analyst comment.

1:15 p.m.: This article was updated with the close of markets.

This article was originally published at 7 a.m.