NEW YORK (Reuters) - The S&P 500 closed slightly lower on Wednesday as falling crude prices and trade jitters held markets in check.
The Nasdaq posted its seventh consecutive daily advance, while the Dow was down marginally. The S&P 500’s dip occurred as the index has inched closer in recent days to its record high set on Jan. 26.
“We had in January the fastest 10 percent decline from an all-time high in history,” said Robert Phipps, director at Per Stirling in Austin, Texas. “When you have substantial declines, particularly off of previous highs, you normally will see periods of digestion.”
China introduced new 25 percent tariffs on $16 billion worth of goods imported from the United States in the latest tit-for-tat in the escalating trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies.
“This is going to continue at least until the midterm elections” in November, Phipps said. “Why would (China) negotiate with the U.S. now when they may get a mixed government to negotiate with after November?”
Trade-sensitive industrial companies .SPLRCI were the biggest drag on the Dow. The decline was led by Boeing (BA.N) and Caterpillar Inc (CAT.N).
Energy stocks .SPNY fell 0.8 percent as crude prices LCOc1 dropped due to slowing Chinese demand and trade concerns.
Technology .SPLRCT provided the largest boost to the S&P 500, led by Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O), Facebook Inc (FB.O) and Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O).
Shares of Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) fell 2.4 percent as its board evaluated Elon Musk’s idea of taking the electric automaker private, a day after the chief executive surprised the market by floating the proposal on Twitter.
