LONDON:U.S. stocks fell for a third day as Apple Inc. paced declines among technology shares, overshadowing a rebound in commodity companies amid merger talks between two chemical industry giants.
Equities erased an early advance as a rally in crude oil withered in the midst of lingering concerns about slowing global growth. Apple sank 2.2 percent, the most in more than three weeks. Costco Wholesale Corp. fell 5.4 percent after its earnings disappointed. Raw-materials surged as Dow Chemical Co. and DuPont Co. were said to be in late-stage talks to combine, with the two companies rising at least 11 percent.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 0.8 percent to 2,047.62 at 4 p.m. in New York, after rising as much as 0.8 percent. The gauge hasn’t had back-to-back gains since Nov. 3, a span of 25 sessions, and is down 0.6 percent for the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 75.70 points, or 0.4 percent, to 17,492.30, even as DuPont added about 53 points to the upside. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 1.5 percent, weighed on by Costco and Apple.
“The market in general seems to be following commodities, specifically oil, and when it rolled back over into negative territory the market seemed to follow,” said Walter Todd, who oversees about $1.1 billion as chief investment officer for Greenwood Capital Associates in South Carolina. “The market is struggling to find a direction with very little out there that’s actionable beyond the Fed meeting.”
