Wall Street's strong start to the year slowed on Wednesday.
- The S&P 500, which hit an all-time high on Tuesday, fell 23.89 points, or 0.3%, to 6,920.93 for its first loss in four days.
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 466.00 points, or 0.9%, to 48,996.08 from its own record set the day before.
- The Nasdaq composite rose 37.10 points, or 0.2%, to 23,584.27.
Some of the market's sharpest drops hit industries that President Trump targeted for criticism, the
AP reports. Homebuilders fell after Trump
suggested moves to prevent large institutional investors from buying single-family homes, in hopes of making it more affordable for people to buy houses.
The potential removal from the market of some buyers for homes sent D.R. Horton down 3.6% and PulteGroup 3.2% lower. Blackstone, a large investment company, briefly fell more than 9%, before paring its loss to 5.6%. Moves across the rest of the U.S. stock market were more modest, including for Warner Bros. Discovery after it again rejected a buyout bid from Paramount and told its shareholders to stick with a rival offer from Netflix. Warner Bros. Discovery rose 0.4%, while Paramount Skydance fell 1% and Netflix added 0.1%.
In the oil market, crude prices fell after Trump said that Venezuela would provide 30 million to 50 million barrels of oil to the United States. A barrel of benchmark US crude dropped 2% to $55.99. Brent crude, the international standard, fell a more modest 1.2% to settle at $59.96 per barrel. Any additional oil flowing from Venezuela into the global system would push down on crude prices by increasing the supply. Prices for oil have swung this week following Trump's weekend ouster of the president of Venezuela, which is likely sitting on some of the largest deposits of oil in the world.
In the bond market, Treasury yields swung following several mixed reports on the US economy. One of the most impactful said that growth for US retailers, finance companies, and other businesses in the services sectors accelerated by more last month than economists expected. The report from the Institute for Supply Management also said that a measure of inflation eased to its lowest level since March. Separate reports Thursday on the job market offered a mixed view. One said that employers cut back on the number of job openings they were advertising, while a second suggested that employers outside of the government added 41,000 more jobs last month than they cut.
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