U.S. stocks declined, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index down for a second straight day, as Italian, Spanish and French credit-default swaps surged to records amid concern Europe’s debt crisis is worsening.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) sank 2.7 percent as profit at the largest retailer trailed forecasts. LinkedIn Corp., a professional-networking website, slid 7.4 percent after saying Bain Capital Ventures will sell all of its shares in a secondary offering. Bank of America Corp. (BAC) rallied 1.6 percent as credit card writeoffs declined.
The S&P 500 dropped 0.4 percent to 1,246.47 at 11:21 a.m. New York time. The benchmark gauge for U.S. equities has fallen 1.4 percent in two days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average retreated 60.47 points, or 0.5 percent, to 12,018.51 today.
“It’s a tug of war,” Michael Strauss, who helps oversee about $27 billion as chief investment strategist at Commonfund in Wilton, Connecticut, said in a telephone interview. “We’ve got these challenges in Europe, but the bottom-line in the U.S. is that we have modest economic growth. The economic numbers are providing a shock-absorber for the market.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Rita Nazareth in New York at rnazareth@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Baker at nbaker7@bloomberg.net
