U.S. stocks lose steam as Apple falls

“U.S. stocks turned lower Tuesday, with the S&P 500 index retreating from a four-year high as Apple’s drop overshadowed optimism that Europe would move to contain its debt crisis,” Kate Gibson reports for MarketWatch. “‘We were more impressed by something that was said in Atlanta than what was said in Germany,’ said Art Hogan, equity strategist at Lazard Capital Markets of hawkish comments by Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank President Dennis Lockhart. The market also faced resistance at multi-year highs, and was also looking for a reason to pullback, Hogan added.”

“After climbing 59 points, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 68.06 points, or 0.5%, to 13,203.58. The S&P 500 Index SPX -0.35% slid 4.96 points, or 0.4%, to 1,413.17, with telecommunications, utilities and technology pacing the losses among its 10 major industry groups,” Gibson reports. “Since its Oct. 9, 2007 high, the market is down 9.4% overall, but information technology is up 16.6%, according to Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices. ‘Take out Apple, and technology is down 4.1%,’ he said.”

“The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 8.95 points, or 0.3%, at 3,067.26,” Gibson reports. “Tuesday’s drop is the biggest hit for all three indexes since Aug. 2. Apple Inc. shares turned lower along with reports the technology company and Samsung Electronics Co. had failed to settle a potentially costly patent dispute, with a federal judge Tuesday afternoon starting to read instructions to a jury in San Jose, Calif. ‘When Apple started to give back too much of its intraday gains, the Nasdaq futures gave it all back and Apple turned from a 10-point gain to a 9-point loss before stabilizing,’ said Elliot Spar, market strategist at Stifel Nicolaus. Shares of Apple finished at $656.06, down $9.09 or 1.4%.”

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