Wall Street shares heavily lower
Dow Jones down 214 pts; Nasdaq off 101
Walmart and Cisco weigh
US stocks continue to descend and are well lower heading toward the close.
The Dow Jones was down 214 points at 21,810, while the Nasdaq was down 101 to 6,243.
The broader based S&P 500 lost 30.67 at 2,437 on track for the lowest close for weeks..
In Toronto, the TSX shed 41 points at 15,040.
US crude - West Texas Intermediate - was 0.60% higher at $47.06.
Tech companies led the declines with Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO) dropping over 4% to $30.97 after the firm issued a disappointing sales forecast.
Retailers also lost ground as major firm Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) shed 1.62% to $79.58.
All 11 S&P 500 sectors end Thursday lower, with technology, financials, and energy among the biggest decliners https://t.co/rgordqEvjo pic.twitter.com/AASqFZ26Uz
— MarketWatch (@MarketWatch) 17 August 2017
MID-SESSION
US stocks were still in the red at mid-session, with the Dow Jones down 179 points to stand at 21,843.
The S&P 500 shed over 24 at 2,443, while the Nasdaq lost 85.97 to stand at 6,258.
In oil, US crude was ahead -m by 0.26% to $46.90 a barrel.
In Toronto, the TSX was down over 29 points at 15,053.
Among the gainers was Stage Stores Inc (NYSE: SSI), which surged over 29% as it reported a second quarter adjusted loss of $0.15 per share on sales of $377.1 million. The company also raised its 2017 guidance.
Elsewhere, Seadrill Partners LLC (NYSE: SDLP) addedalmost 18% to $3.15 as the firm reported that it has completed amendments to three secured credit facilities.
Elsewhere, Spherix Inc (NASDAQ:SPEX), the intellectual property group, saw shares add over 36% to $1.90 on the day .
On the losing front, Cisco Systems Inc (NYSE:CSCO) was a notable loser, shedding 4.45% to $30.90 as it forecast that revenues would drop in its current quarter.
Cisco’s sales for the fourth quarter came in at $12.1bn, which just beat analysts’ forecasts for sales of $12.06bn. However, Cisco’s revenue fell 4% from a year ago.
OPEN
US stocks were seeing red at the open, as indicated by earlier futures trading.
It was mirrored in Europe. FTSE 100 shed 29 points, while the German DAX shed 27 at 12,236.
On Wall Street, traders are mulling some big cap shares losses as well as Yesterday's Fed minutes, which showed the Central Bank is worried over inflation. To add to the mix, President Trump got rid of two business advisory panels.
The Dow Jones is down 101 at 21,923, the Nasdaq shed 48 at 6,296. The broader S&P 500 lost 12.81 at 2,455.
In Toronto, the TSX is down over 20 points to stand at 15,061, while oil - US crude - added 0.17% to $46.86 a barrel.
In companies, retail was in focus again after Target Corp (NYSE:TGT) yesterday. Walmart (NYSE:WMT) reported today.
Shares shed 2% to $79.36, despite the retail giant reporting slightly better-than-expected earnings per share for the second quarter.
Stripping out one-off items, earnings per share (EPS) for the three months to the end of July came in at US$1.08, which was a penny higher than the consensus forecast among analysts.
As-reported EPS was 96 cents, versus US$1.21 in the same quarter of 2016.
Elsewhere, online e-tailer Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) saw its shares jump 3.62% to $165.27 in New York after the China-based e-commerce giant saw its first-quarter profit and sales growth beat expectations.
For the quarter ended June 30, the NYSE-listed firm said its net income nearly doubled to around US$2.58bn, while earnings per share rose by 92% to 83 US cents.
Excluding non-recurring items, the group’s adjusted EPS were US$1.17, well above the consensus forecast for 93 US cents, as revenue rose by 56% to US$7.40bn, also above the consensus estimate of US$7.12bn.
Alibaba said monthly active users on mobile increased by 24% to 529mln, while cloud computing paying customers increased by 75% to 1.01mln helping cloud computing revenue leap 96% higher to US$359mln.