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Stock Market Closes Lower As These Sectors Cause Most Damage

The stock market closed lower Wednesday, but kept its uptrend intact as the Nasdaq composite and S&P 500 remained about 1% from this week's highs.

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Major indexes today did reverse lower, while the Nasdaq continued to feel some resistance at its 50-day moving average. The composite ended 0.4% lower.

The S&P 500 lost 0.2%, hurt mainly by the financial and energy sectors. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2% also. Just as it was getting ready to break out of a base, Dow component Cisco Systems (CSCO) fell more than 2%. William Blair downgraded the network equipment company to market perform from outperform.

Small caps performed better, with the Russell 2000 nearly unchanged on the day.

Early numbers showed volume fell from Tuesday's totals. That helped take a bite out of the day's losses.

Energy, financials and technology shares led the market lower. The price of U.S. crude fell 4% to $51.15 per barrel after crude stockpiles increased sharply for a second week in a row. The Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE) fell 1.4%, undoing nearly four days of gains.

Facebook (FB) cost the Nasdaq and Nasdaq 100 some capital. The social media stock fell 1.7% after The Wall Street Journal reported the company discovered emails that link CEO Mark Zuckerberg to controversial privacy practices at Facebook.

Microsoft (MSFT) fell 0.5% and closed near its 131.47 buy point. The stock's breakout is hardly in peril, but it is not following through so far. That's not so surprising in the context of the broad market.

There were no notable breakouts Wednesday. But leading stocks performed relatively well. The Innovator IBD 50 ETF (FFTY) rose 0.3%.

Kirkland Lake Gold (KL), Innovative Industrial Properties (IIPR), Essential Properties (EPRT) and Planet Fitness (PLNT) rose 2% or more on the IBD 50. Etsy (ETSY) climbed 3% and is forming a double-bottom base. The stock was added to IBD Leaderboard today.

But Upland Software (UPLD) was a drag. The provider of cloud-based work management systems slid 3.2% and triggered a sell signal after falling more than 8% from its 50.74 buy point. The stock was removed from Leaderboard.

Juan Carlos Arancibia is the Markets Editor of IBD and oversees our market coverage. Follow him at @IBD_jarancibia

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