After posting steady gains to open the session following gains by Bank of America Corp ( BAC.N ) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc ( GS.N ), the S&P financials sector ( .SPSY ) weakened at the close. Apple reversed course and closed down 2.1 percent at $147.1 on a Bloomberg report that said the company plans to slow hiring and spending growth next year in some units to counter a possible economic downturn. read more Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Goldman Sachs rose 2.5 percent as it reported a smaller-than-expected 48 percent drop in second-quarter profit, helped by strength in its fixed-income business. Concerns about a bigger one-percentage-point rate hike at the end of July eased after Fed officials hinted last week that policymakers could stick with a 75-basis-point hike. read more “It’s really hard to sustain the upward momentum,” said Ross Mayfield, investment strategist at Baird in Louisville, Kentucky. “And that’s kind of the story of bear markets.” A trader works at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., July 13, 2022. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) fell 215.65 points, or 0.69%, to 31,072.61, the S&P 500 (.SPX) lost 32.31 points, or 0.84%, to 3,830.85 and the Nasdaq IX 2.7 points or Composite. 0.81%, to 11,360.05. Nine of the S&P 500’s 11 major sectors lost ground, with health care (.SPXHC) and utilities (.SPLRCU) the biggest percentage decliners, while energy (.SPNY) posted the biggest gain. Earnings from major tech companies next week will be closely watched after their shares have come under huge selling pressure for much of this year. Among other tech stocks, Google parent Alphabet fell 2.5 percent. IBM fell 1.3%. Volume on US exchanges was 10.63 billion shares, compared to the 12.15 billion average for the full session over the past 20 trading days. Advancers outnumber decliners on the NYSE by a ratio of 1.20 to 1. On the Nasdaq, a ratio of 1.06 to 1 favored decliners. The S&P 500 hit a new 52-week high and 31 new lows. the Nasdaq Composite hit 30 new highs and 78 new lows. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Reporting by Echo Wang in New York. Additional reporting by Shreyashi Sanyal, Bansari Mayur Kamdar and Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru. Editing by Shounak Dasgupta, Anil D’Silva and Deepa Babington Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
