NEW YORK — Wall Street fell again Wednesday, though a rally for Microsoft and some other Big Tech stocks helped to limit the losses.
The S&P 500 dropped 15.64 points, or 0.4%, to 4,055.99. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 228.96, or 0.7%, to 33,301.87, while the Nasdaq composite led the market with a gain of 55.19, or 0.5%, to 11,854.35.
Wall Street was coming off its worst day in a month, hurt by concerns about the strength of U.S. banks. First Republic Bank lost another 29.8% after nearly halving the day before following its report about how many customers bolted amid last month’s turmoil in the industry.
The worry is that smaller and mid-sized banks could suffer debilitating runs of deposits from customers, similar to the ones that caused last month’s failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. Even without more shutdowns, the industry’s struggles could cause a pullback in lending by banks and sap the economy.
PacWest Bancorp., another bank in investors’ spotlight, rose 7.5% after reporting stronger results than expected and saying that its deposits have grown since late March. That may offer optimism that First Republic’s struggles could be specific to itself.
Enphase Energy fell 25.7% Wednesday despite reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than forecast. Analysts pointed to its revenue forecast for the current quarter, which fell short of some expectations.
Most companies topped expectations so far this reporting season, but investors are paying more attention to what CEOs say about upcoming trends than results for the past three months.
Activision Blizzard tumbled 11.4% after U.K. regulators blocked Microsoft’s takeover on concerns it would hurt competition in the cloud gaming market.
While the majority of stocks fell, Microsoft rose 7.2% after reporting stronger profit than analysts expected for the first three months of the year. It carries a huge weight as the second-largest stock on the S&P 500 index.
Google’s parent company, Alphabet, also turned a bigger profit than expected but its stock slipped 0.2%. It reported its first back-to-back drops in advertising revenue from a year earlier since it became a publicly traded company in 2004.
Chipotle Mexican Grill rose 12.9% for the biggest gain in the S&P 500 after reporting stronger profit than expected.
A report on Wednesday showed orders for long-lasting manufactured goods were stronger in March than expected.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 3.43% from 3.40% late Tuesday. The two-year Treasury yield fell to 3.92% from 3.95% late Tuesday.
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