US stock market: S&P 500 barely gains while Dow ends lower as Cisco and Walmart drag
economictimes.indiatimes.comNasdaq managed to eke out tiny gains on Thursday while the Dow Industrial Average ended slightly lower with pressure from tech and retail bellwethers Cisco and Walmart after disappointing forecasts.
Shares of Cisco Systems tumbled 9.8% as the communications and networking technology company cut its full-year revenue and profit forecasts on slowing demand for its networking equipment. Also in technology, Palo Alto Networks shares fell 5.4% after its forecast late Wednesday for second-quarter billings missed expectations.
Walmart shares sank 8.1% a day after touching a record high.
The retail giant said U.S. consumers were spending cautiously because of inflation, even as it raised its annual forecast for sales and profit.
This helped send the S&P 500 consumer staples index down 1.2% and weighed on retailers with Dollar General and Dollar Tree both falling 4.2%.
Also, Target fell 0.4%, giving back some gains from the previous session in which it soared 17.8% after providing a bullish strong holiday-quarter outlook.
Earlier this week, Wall Street indexes had rallied sharply with data signaling cooling U.S.
inflation and fueling hopes the U.S. Federal Reserve is done hiking interest rates.
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