Nasdaq stabilizes as equity benchmarks pare earlier losses
By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch
NEW YORK -- U.S. stocks tallied mild losses Wednesday as Wall Street questioned how far to extend the recent damage after another round of weak economic data.
"We'll have to figure how much is priced in with the carnage we've already done to the three major indexes," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Jefferies & Co.
Down 100 points earlier in the session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA 10,021, -19.83, -0.20%) was lately off 20.81 points to 10,019.64, with the blue-chip benchmark down for the fifth straight session.
Twenty of the Dow's 30 components were in the red, with Walt Disney Co. (DIS 31.83, -0.31, -0.97%) off the most, down 1.3%. Home-improvement retailer Home Depot Inc. (HD 28.14, +0.36, +1.28%) fared the best, its shares up 1.5%.
Also extending losses into a fifth session, the S&P 500 (SPX 1,049, -2.75, -0.26%) fell 3.58 points to 1,048.27.
After a two-day losing streak, the Nasdaq Composite (COMP 2,125, +1.67, +0.08%) reversed course to move fractionally higher, lately at 2,123.78.
For two every stocks on the rise, three fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where nearly 394 million shares traded as of 11:35 a.m. Eastern.
Commodities also came in for investors' attention. Gold futures traded up $6.40 to $1,239.8 an ounce, while crude-oil futures eased 6 cents to $71.57 a barrel.
The major stock indexes pared their steep slide after more data on the state of the U.S. housing market were released, showing that new-home sales fell 12.4% in July to an annual rate of 276,000, a record low. Read more about the housing data.
"The market quickly reversed course, however, with the thinking that new-home sales, while at record lows, can't really get much worse, and a bottom may be at hand," said analysts at Action Economics.
Before Wall Street's open, the government reported that orders for durable goods climbed a meager 0.3% in July, an increase far less than anticipated. Read more about the durable-goods orders.
"Orders for things that last three years fell off the cliff in the month of July," said Hogan.
"It's another clear reflection of the softness of the U.S. economy," he added.
