Publications
Partners
New York - Wall Street stocks finished lower on Wednesday as worries over higher US Treasury bond yields offset Verizon's $4.4bn takeover of AOL.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 36.94 points to 18 068.23.
The broad-based S&P 500 shed 6.21 at 2 099.12, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index lost 17.38 at 4 976.19.
US stocks fell sharply early in the season on spiking bond yields, but cut those losses later in the day as yields retreated a bit.
"The market is sort of catching its breath today and waiting for some data tomorrow," said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at S&P Capital IQ.
Key data on Wednesday include the US retail sales report for April.
AOL shot up 18.6% on news the Internet pioneer would be bought by Verizon in an effort to boost the telecom giant's presence in online media and advertising. Verizon fell 0.4%.
Oil-services companies benefited from higher crude prices. Halliburton added 0.6%, Transocean rose 3.3% and Weatherford International advanced 1.5%.
Apparel retailer Gap lost 3.8% as global comparable sales in April 2015 tumbled 12% compared with last year.
Pall, which manufacturers filtration and separation equipment, surged 19.4% on a report that the company could be acquired for $13bn or more. Potential buyers include Danaher Corp. and Thermo Fisher Scientific, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Insurer PartnerRe gained 0.8% as the Italian investment firm Exor raised its bid for the company from $6.4bn to $6.8bn.
Cloud computing company Rackspace Hosting plummeted 13.5% after reporting that first-quarter net income rose 11.8% to $28.4m. Analysts cited a disappointing sales outlook.
Bond prices advanced. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury dipped to 2.25% from 2.28% on Monday, while the 30-year dropped to 3.02% from 3.05%. Bond prices and yields move inversely.
