Stocks Indexes Settle Down, But Small Companies Drop Again

U.S. stocks wobbled Thursday as the markets turned fairly quiet after a very turbulent start to the week. Small companies dropped and high-dividend stocks, which investors favor when they want to reduce risk, rose.

Major stock indexes spent the day switching between small gains and losses after several days of much bigger moves. Clothing companies and other retailers fell, weighed down by weak earnings reports.

Chemical and basic materials makers also sank. Investors shifted some money into high-dividend stocks including utilities, household goods makers and real estate investment trusts.

The European Central Bank said it will end its bond-buying stimulus program at the end of the year, but trimmed its forecasts for growth across Europe. The bank isn’t ending its stimulus program entirely, as it will continue to invest money from maturing bonds and will take other steps to encourage banks to lend money.

The S&P 500 index lost 0.53 points to 2,650.54. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 70.11 points, or 0.3 percent, to 24,597.38 as McDonald’s and Procter & Gamble rose. The Nasdaq composite fell 27.98 points, or 0.4 percent, to 7,070.33.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 22.62 points, or 1.6 percent, to 1,432.70. The Russell has fallen 17.7 percent since setting a record high in late August and is trading at its lowest level since September 2017.

Shaky reports from retailers may have caused worry worries Thursday as apparel company Tailored Brands and Oxford Industries, the parent of Tommy Bahama and Lilly Pulitzer, both cut their forecasts for the year. Tailored Brands ell 29.8 percent to $14.13 and Oxford slipped 10.1 percent to $67.24. Smaller industrial and financial firms also dropped and larger retailers struggled as well.

The Federal Reserve has been steadily raising interest rates for three years and is letting its balance sheet shrink, and the Bank of England is also backing away from the stimulus efforts it employed following the global financial crisis of 2007-2009 and the Great Recession.

Germany’s DAX and the British FTSE 100 were little changed while the CAC 40 in France fell 0.3 percent.

Oil prices climbed following a Bloomberg News report that Saudi Arabia plans to cut exports to the U.S.

General Electric climbed 7.3 percent to $7.20 after JPMorgan Chase analyst C. Stephen Tusa upgraded the stock to “Neutral” from “Underweight.” GE has fallen almost 60 percent this year after slashing its dividend and taking big charges tied its power business and its insurance business.

Benchmark U.S. crude oil jumped 2.8 percent to $52.58 per barrel in New York. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 2.2 percent to $61.45 per barrel in London.

Wholesale gasoline climbed 4.1 percent to $1.48 a gallon and heating oil rose 1.4 percent to $1.88 a gallon. Natural gas slipped 0.3 percent to $2.14 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Bond prices edged lower. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.91 percent at 2.90 percent.

Gold dipped 0.2 percent to $1,247.40 an ounce. Silver was little changed at $14.89 an ounce and copper stayed at $2.77 a pound.

The dollar rose to 113.60 yen from 113.22 yen. The euro finished unchanged at $1.1367. The British pound rose to $1.2660 from $1.2634.