U.S. Stocks Decline as Tech Losses Offset Energy Rally - Bloomberg

U.S. stocks fell as declines in technology and consumer-discretionary companies offset a rebound in energy shares before tomorrow’s monetary decision by Federal Reserve policy makers.For a second day, investors were whipsawed by the biggest stock swings in two months. The S&P 500 (SPX) fell 0.7 percent in the first 10 minutes of trading then rebounded, surging as much as 1.4 percent as crude erased losses. The index reversed gains in the early afternoon, climbed again and then headed lower in the final hour. The 44-point move from top to bottom is the biggest for any day since mid-October, when the index was ending its worst retreat in 2014.

Microsoft Corp., Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. dropped at least 2.8 percent as technology shares slumped. Amazon.com Inc. lost 3.4 percent. Range Resources Corp., Nabors Industries Ltd. and Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. paced gains among energy companies. Boeing Co., 3M Co. and CVS Health Corp. increased more than 1.7 percent after raising their dividends.

The S&P 500 fell 0.8 percent to 1,973.07 at 4 p.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 103.14 points, or 0.6 percent, to 17,077.70. The technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index tumbled 1.6 percent. Trading in S&P 500 companies was 39 percent above the 30-day average for this time of the day.

“There continues to be a backdrop of the U.S. economy improving and we’ll probably see some confirmation from the Fed on that,” Jim Dunigan, chief investment officer at PNC Bank NA, which oversees $130 billion, said by phone from Philadelphia. “We’re trading a lot on headlines and much of that has been dominated by crude, credit and currencies, so not exactly the fundamentals to make good equity decisions.”  Read More