Stocks Down on Health Care,Real Estate
NEW YORK (AP) -- Health care and real estate stocks are leading a broad decline on Wall Street on Thursday as the market gives back some of a gain from the day before. Yields on government bonds rose again. Crude oil climbed past $50 a barrel, the highest price since June.
KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average fell 86 points, or 0.5 percent, to 18,195. The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 6 points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,153. The Nasdaq composite declined 24 points, or 0.5 percent, to 5,292.
TWITTER TUMBLE: Twitter plunged $4.76, or 19 percent, to $20.11 on reports that some companies that were believed to be interested in buying it will not. Rumors of a deal had sent Twitter up 33 percent in the 11 trading days through Wednesday.
P[L1] D[0x0] M[300x250] OOP[F] ADUNIT[] T[]
DRUG DOWNER: Mylan slumped 99 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $37.04 following reports that the company overcharged Medicaid over five years for its EpiPen allergy treatment.
CHINA TROUBLE: Yum Brands fell $1.18, or 1.4 percent, to $86.44 after the parent company of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut reported a quarterly profit and sales late Wednesday that missed Wall Street expectations. The results were hurt in part by protests in China against Western businesses after a court invalidated some of China's historic claims in the South China Sea.
EUROPE'S DAY: Germany's DAX shed 0.1 percent and Britain's FTSE 100 slipped 0.3 percent. France's CAC 40 was unchanged.
RATE HIKE? Investors are looking ahead to a monthly U.S. jobs report on Friday for further clues as to when the Federal Reserve is likely to increase interest rates from the super-low levels that have helped fuel the seven-year bull market.
BREXIT FACTOR: The British pound continued to drop on concerns that the country is moving ahead with its decision to the leave the European Union and could opt to leave the bloc's tariff-free single market. The pound fell 0.9 percent to $1.2639, its lowest level since the June 23 vote to leave the EU.
ASIA'S DAY: Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index climbed 0.5 percent and South Korea's Kospi gained 0.6 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.7 percent and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.6 percent.
ENERGY: Oil prices rose to their highest level since June. U.S. benchmark crude oil gained 40 cents to $50.23 a barrel in the New York. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 49 cents to $52.35 a barrel in London.
BONDS AND CURRENCIES: Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 1.74 percent from 1.71 percent. The dollar rose to 103.94 yen, its highest level in a month, from 103.64 yen. The euro slipped to $1.1179 from $1.1212.
(KA)