A 2.2 percent fall in Comcast and a 2.4 percent drop in Walt Disney weighed the most on the three major indexes. Apple dropped as much as 2.2 percent to $144.27, before recovering to trade 0.3 percent lower, after the company reported a surprise fall in iPhone sales and forecast current-quarter revenue below estimates.
Apple's disappointing report put a damper on what has been a largely upbeat earnings season, with major stock indexes hovering near record highs. Strong corporate reports so far had resulted in estimates for first-quarter profit growth at S&P 500 companies increasing to 14.2 percent as of Wednesday, from an estimate of 10.4 percent growth two weeks back, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
"We're about 70 percent through the earnings season and despite some isolated incidents, overall the season has been great," said Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab in Austin, Texas. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P and the Nasdaq are less than one percent away from their record highs.
At 13:11 pm ET (1710 GMT) the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 21.12 points, or 0.1 percent, at 20,928.77. The S&P 500 was down 6.29 points, or 0.26 percent, at 2,384.88 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 27.57 points, or 0.45 percent, at 6,067.80. Nine of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors were lower, with the materials index's 1.16 percent fall leading the decliners.
Copyright Reuters, 2017