S&P 500, Dow slip as Turkey's currency woes spread

By Stephen Culp

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Dow industrials fell on Monday as a global contagion of market jitters arising from the plunge of Turkey's currency spread to Wall Street, while the Nasdaq edged higher on gains from tech stocks.

Financial stocks bore the brunt of the concerns over Turkey, with shares of Citigroup Inc , Bank of America Corp , Wells Fargo & Co and JPMorgan Chase & Co down between 0.5 percent and 1.5 percent.

The S&P 500 and the Dow were both on track for their fourth consecutive daily decline.

A pledge by Turkey's central bank to stabilise the falling lira > failed to quell investor worries. The currency remained under pressure, having dropped 40 percent against the dollar so far this year.

 

"People are starting to pay attention to the problems facing emerging markets," said Jamie Cox, managing partner at Harris Financial Group in Richmond, Virginia. "When you have so many countries around world with trade actions, it's really easy to draw conclusions that this could be much bigger than just a Turkey-related story."

Technology was one of the few bright spots, up 0.3 percent, the most among the 11 major S&P 500 sectors.

Apple Inc helped the tech sector's advance, its shares hitting an all-time high as the first U.S. listed company to reach $1 trillion in market value continued its post-earnings rally.

Amazon.com also hit a record high of $1,925 per share. The stock was last up 1.1 percent.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> fell 58.97 points, or 0.23 percent, to 25,254.17, the S&P 500 <.SPX> dropped 2.89 points, or 0.10 percent, to 2,830.39 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 6.26 points, or 0.08 percent, to 7,845.37.

The second-quarter earnings season is nearing conclusion. So far, 455 companies in the S&P 500 have reported, with 79 percent beating analysts' estimates, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The CBOE Volatility Index <.VIX>, a gauge of investor anxiety, rose for the third straight session to its highest in more than a month.

Netflix Inc announced the departure of Chief Financial Officer David Wells. The streaming service's shares were down 0.7 percent.

Motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson Inc dipped 4.1 percent after President Donald Trump tweeted support for a boycott against the company.

Rite Aid Corp fell to more than a five-year low, extending its losses after the retail drugstore chain ended its Albertsons merger. The stock was last down 6.8 percent.

Among gainers, Tesla Inc shares rose 1.2 percent. Chief Executive Elon Musk said he was in discussion with Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund and other potential backers of his plan to take the electric car-maker private, but he said financing was not yet nailed down.

Nielsen Holdings jumped 10.0 percent after activist hedge fund Elliott Management disclosed it had taken a stake in the media and consumer research company.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 2.11-to-1 ratio; on the Nasdaq, a 1.80-to-1 ratio favoured decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 12 new 52-week highs and 8 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 58 new highs and 103 new lows.

(Reporting by Stephen Culp, additional reporting by James Thorne; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)