By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com – The S&P 500 was flat Wednesday, as investors appeared to hit pause on cyclical sectors of the market, with financials and energy leading the broader market lower.
The S&P 500 fell 0.12%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.45%, or 161 points, the Nasdaq lost 0.11%.
Energy continued its sluggish start to the week, falling more than 1% as oil prices were pressured by data showing a draw of 3.2 million barrels last week from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
In a further hit to oil prices, the International Energy Agency warned of a “reprieve from the price rally […] due to rising oil supplies."
Valero Energy (NYSE:VLO), APA (NASDAQ:APA), Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX) led the energy sector lower.
Financials fell more than 1% as banking stocks came under pressure amid easing Treasury yields as concerns grow about the impact fresh Cooid-19 restrictions in Europe will have a global economic growth.
Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), State Street (NYSE:STT), Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), were among the biggest decliners, with the latter down more than 3%.
Financials and energy are the top performing sectors for the year, up about 34% and 45%, respectively.
In the midst of the pandemic gloom, there was positive news on Covid-19 treatments. Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) filed its application to the Food and Drug Administration to approve its vaccine booster doses for all adults aged at least 18.
Consumer discretionary, meanwhile, added to gains from a day earlier even as a slump in Target weighed on retailers.
Target (NYSE:TGT) fell more than 5% as better-than-expected quarterly results were offset by concerns of margins pressures ahead after chief executive Brian Cornell said the retailer was unlikely to pass rising costs onto consumers.
Lowe’s (NYSE:LOW) was marginally higher after raising its full-year guidance following quarterly results that beat on both the top and bottom lines.
TJX Inc (NYSE:TJX), meanwhile, delivered third-quarter results that topped Wall Street estimates as same-store sales climbed 14%, above expectations for a 3% rise.
Elsewhere, Visa (NYSE:V), a major Dow component, slumped more than 5% after Amazon said it would stop accepting payments made with Visa credit cards in the UK.
Losses in the broader market were also kept in check by ongoing strength in big tech.
Meta, formerly Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) were sightly lower, while Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) were higher.
On the economic front, October housing starts fell 0.7% month-over-month to a 1.52 million units, missing economists’ estimates got a rise to 1.576 million.
“We continue to blame the weakness on supply constraints,” Jefferies said in a note. “Demand for housing has improved in recent months corroborated most recently by yesterday's home builder sentiment index which rose to its highest level since May.”