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 Financial companies lost ground after global regulators fined five
major banks - including UBS AG, HSBC Holdings Plc and Citigroup Inc
- $3.4 billion for failing to stop their traders from trying to
manipulate the foreign exchange market.
Citigroup shares dipped 0.5 percent to $53.56 while the S&P
financial index lost 0.3 percent.
"The imposition of fines by the watchdog basically weighed on
European bank stocks, and as a result the market is following suit
here," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell
Global Capital in New York.
"It’s a market that could certainly use a little bit of a rest and a
pullback, and that would be healthy from a technical aspect."
Tuesday's record close for the S&P 500 marked its 40th new closing
high for the year, versus 45 in 2013. The last time the index closed
at a record high for five straight days was in May 2013, with the
next longest streak being an 8-day run in June 1997. The Dow is on a
6-session winning streak, its longest run since June.
The S&P 500 has rallied more than 9 percent from a six-month low in
October, buoyed by supportive economic data and solid corporate
earnings. For the year so far, the index is up more than 10 percent.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> fell 69.82 points, or 0.4
percent, to 17,545.08, the S&P 500 <.SPX> lost 5.88 points, or 0.29
percent, to 2,033.8 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> dropped 9.10
points, or 0.2 percent, to 4,651.46.
As earnings season draws to a close, Thomson Reuters data through
Tuesday morning showed that of 449 companies in the S&P 500
reporting, 74.6 percent beat expectations, above the 63 percent
average beat rate since 1994 and 67 percent for the past four
quarters. Earnings overall were expected to grow 10 percent over the
year-ago period.
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Macy's Inc helped lead retailers to a slight gain, up 2.2 percent to
$59.90 after it posted third-quarter earnings and revised its
full-year outlook. The S&P retail index edged up 0.1 percent. Cisco
Systems is scheduled to report earnings after the close.
In a light day for economic data, a report on wholesale inventory
for September is due at 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT). Expectations call
for a 0.2 percent rise versus the 0.7 percent increase in the prior
month.
Susquehanna Bancshares Inc surged 33.1 percent to $13.18 after the
company agreed to be acquired by BB&T Corp for about $2.5 billion.
BB&T shares lost 1.7 percent to $37.69.
(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by W Simon, JS Benkoe and
Nick Zieminski)
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