Wall Street's 3-week "Trump rally" ends with whimper
Stocks moved slightly lower Monday, pulling back from the records they set last week. Consumer companies and banks took some of the largest losses, while small-company stocks, which had been outperforming the rest of the market for weeks, gave back some of their recent gains.
The Dow Jones industrial average lost 54 points, or 0.28 percent, to 19,098. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell nearly 12 points, or 0.53 percent, to 2,202, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 30 points, or 0.56 percent, to 5,369.
Despite the declines, stocks have staged a remarkable rally in November since the unexpected election of Donald Trump. Investors have made big bets that Trump, with a Republican-led Congress, will push to deregulate energy and banking and cut taxes, which could lead to stronger economic growth.
“The economic and equity market backdrop was already improving before the election. Trump’s victory and the Republican sweep provided a catalyst for investors to ratchet up their optimism,” said Bob Doll, chief equity strategist at Nuveen Asset Management, in a note to investors.
The Russell 2000, an index of smaller companies, was down 1.29 percent. That index had risen for 15 days in a row, its longest winning streak in 20 years. All of the major indexes finished at record highs last Friday.
Investors have also pulled out of the bond market, betting that higher economic growth will also lead to higher inflation, something the U.S. economy has had little of since the financial crisis.
Consumer discretionary stocks were among the hardest hit, following the closely watched post-Thanksgiving sales push.
Online retail giant Amazon fell $13.09, or 1.7 percent, to $767.09 after Citigroup analysts cut their price target on the stock, citing deep discounting by the retailer to compete during the holiday shopping season. Barnes & Noble fell 35 cents, or 3 percent, to $12.60 on reports the bookseller is also doing deep discounting.
Magazine publisher Time Inc. jumped $2.48, or 18 percent, to $16.08 after the company reported rejected a buyout offer from investor Edgar Bronfman Jr.
The price of benchmark U.S. oil jumped $1.29, or 2.8 percent, to $47.35 a barrel in New York ahead of a meeting of OPEC, where oil-producing countries may consider a broad production cut. Brent crude, the international standard, rose $1.16, or 2.4 percent, to $49.41 a barrel in London.
Bond prices edged higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.32 percent from 2.36 percent.
The dollar was higher against the euro at $1.058 compared with $1.059 on Friday, and the dollar was at 112.38 to the Japanese yen, down from 113.04 on Friday.
