NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks fell Friday as health care and technology companies continued to report weak first-quarter results, but thanks to some late buying, they managed to avoid major losses.
Stocks opened lower and fell further throughout the morning, extending a downturn from the day before. That followed a rout in European indexes. Late in the day bond prices rose again, sending yields lower and pushing investors to buy utility and phone company stocks.
Dan Suzuki, senior U.S. equities strategist at Bank of America, said investors don’t like what they’re seeing in the results from technology companies.
“A lot of investors have been disappointed by results from tech this earnings season,†he said. They are turning to bond-like stocks such as phone and utility companies, as well as small- and mid-cap stocks, which struggled in 2015.
“Everything that was working through last year has been an underperformer this year, and vice versa,†he said.
The Dow Jones industrial average gave up 57.12 points, or 0.3 percent, to 17,773.64. It was down as much as 178 points earlier in the day. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 10.51 points, or 0.5 percent, to 2,065.30. The Nasdaq composite index lost 29.93 points, or 0.6 percent, to 4,775.36. That was its seventh decline in a row.
Health care companies took the biggest losses after a bout of weak earnings reports. Biotech drugmaker Gilead Sciences said its results were hurt by big discounts and rebates on its costly hepatitis C medicines, and its stock lost $8.79, or 9.1 percent, to $88.21. Rival biotech giant Amgen reported relatively solid results, but fell $2.26, or 1.4 percent, to $158.30.