NEW YORK – U.S. stocks fell for a second day as Cisco Systems Inc. reported diminished demand from the domestic automotive and financial industries and retailers posted worse-than-expected October sales, Bloomberg News said.
Cisco, No. 3 software maker Oracle Corp. and International Business Machines Corp. led technology shares to their biggest two-day decline since August 2004. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Macy’s Inc. each had fallen to their lowest share price in two months. And shares of American International Group Inc. – the world’s largest insurer – hit a two-year low after the company said mortgage-related losses had caused its third-quarter profit to decline.
“The technology sector has been a leader here in the market for the past several months,” Eric Thorne, who helps manage $2.4 billion at Bryn Mawr Trust Co. in Bryn Mawr, Pa., told Bloomberg News. “You have a report from Cisco that’s a little bit behind Wall Street’s expectations and it definitely has a psychological impact.”
Although on the New York Stock Exchange, about the same number of stocks fell as rose this morning, all the major indexes posted declines.
As of 12:01 p.m., the Dow Jones Industrial Average had lost 59.18 points or 0.4 percent since this morning’s opening and stood at 13,240.84, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index had fallen 3.72 points or 0.3 percent to 1,471.9. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index had lost 38.34 points or 1.4 percent to 2,710.42 points.
In Europe, Bloomberg News said, the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index lost 0.6 percent today to close at 373.48, its lowest since Sept. 25, after dipping by as much as 1.5 percent earlier in the day. Asian markets also fell, Bloomberg said, with the Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average losing 2 percent, Taiwan’s Taiex index falling 3.9 percent and China’s CSI 300 Index losing 4.8 percent.
