U.S. Stocks Decline, With GE Pulling Industrial Companies Down

NEW YORK (AP) —
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(AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

U.S. stocks are lower Monday as General Electric and other industrial companies slide. Toy company Hasbro and competitor Mattel are tumbling after Hasbro’s sales forecast disappointed Wall Street. Health-care companies are making gains as major stock indexes remain near all-time highs following a six-week winning streak. Company earnings also remain in investors’ sights.

KEEPING SCORE: The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 1 point to 2,574 as of 12:30 p.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 18 points, or 0.1 percent, to 23,346. The Nasdaq composite fell 8 points, or 0.1 percent, to 6,621. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks sank 5 points, or 0.4 percent, to 1,503.

The S&P closed at an all-time high every day last week. According to S&P Dow Jones indices, that hadn’t happened since March 1998, according to S&P Dow Jones indices.

POWER DOWN: General Electric tumbled $1.44, or 6.1 percent, to $22.39 after analysts at UBS and Morgan Stanley lowered their ratings on the company. Investors reacted positively to the conglomerate’s third-quarter results Friday, but UBS analyst Christopher Belfiore cut his 2018 and 2019 profit estimates for GE and said it’s likely to reduce its dividend payments.

Other industrial firms also took losses. Equipment rental company United Rentals lost $2.78, or 1.9 percent, to $141.62. Arconic, which makes engineered products for the aerospace and other industries, fell $2.51, or 9.2 percent, to $24.68 after it disclosed a smaller-than-expected profit. Boeing sank $1.77 to $262.98.

NO JOY FOR TOYS: Hasbro tumbled after its sales forecast fell short of Wall Street estimates. The company said the recent bankruptcy of Toys R Us affected its business. Its stock gave up $8.86, or 9 percent, to $89.33; and competitor Mattel fell 45 cents, or 2.8 percent, to $15.52.

LEADERS: Health-care companies did better than the rest of the market. Drug and health-care products maker Johnson & Johnson rose $1.67, or 1.2 percent, to $144.08; while robotic surgery system maker Intuitive Surgical climbed $7.63, or 2.1 percent, to $377.21.

Investors were also occupied with companies’ quarterly results. Electronic storage company Seagate Technology surged after its first-quarter report surpassed analysts’ expectations. The stock gained $4.16, or 11.9 percent, to $39.10. VF Corp., which owns brands including Vans, Timberland and Wrangler, raised its estimates for the year after a strong third quarter report. Its shares advanced $4, or 6 percent, to $70.38.

DEALS: Communications software maker BroadSoft added 77 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $54.68 after Cisco Systems agreed to buy it for $55 a share, or $1.9 billion. The stock has climbed 25 percent since Aug. 29 on reports BroadSoft planned to consider a sale. Cisco rose 43 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $34.68.

Timber and wood products companies Potlach and Deltic Timber also said they will combine. Potlach said it will buy Deltic in an all-stock deal that will create a company that owns about 2 million acres of timber. Deltic added $5.24, or 5.9 percent, to $94.37, and Potlach rose 30 cents to $53.30.

BONDS: Bond prices edged higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.36 percent from 2.38 percent.

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude lost 2 cents to $51.82 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, used to price international oils, fell 38 cents to $57.37 a barrel in London.

CURRENCIES: The dollar rose to 113.69 yen from 113.50 yen. The euro fell to $1.1761 from $1.1780.

OVERSEAS: The CAC 40 in France rose 0.3 percent, and Germany’s DAX rose 0.1 percent. In Britain, the FTSE 100 was little changed.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 jumped 1.1 percent after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party scored a win in the nationwide parliamentary election Sunday, partly because of a splintered opposition. However, a new pacifist opposition party made dramatic gains. That underscored voters’ doubts about Abe’s agenda for revising Japan’s war-renouncing constitution and strengthening the military.

The South Korean Kospi finished little changed, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.6 percent.

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