Dow drops more than 200 points, led by technology, AT&T shares
Fred Imbert | @foimbert
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Stocks fell on Wednesday as losses in tech and AT&T shares outweighed a post-earnings bounce in Boeing.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 217 points as United Technologies and Disney lagged. The S&P 500 dropped 1.2 percent as the tech and financials sectors fell more than 1 percent each. The Nasdaq Composite fell 1 percent as Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet all traded lower.
Facebook and Alphabet both fell more than 1 percent, while Apple slipped 0.8 percent. AT&T, meanwhile, dropped more than 6.5 percent after releasing its quarterly results.
Equities were also pressures by a decline in housing stocks. The SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB) dropped 1.2 percent after the Commerce Department said new home sales hit a near two-year low.
"The housing numbers were not good," said JJ Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade. "There's a lot of uncertainty heading into the end of the year. It just feels like people feel more comfortable spending short-term rather than long term."
Investors have been grappling with increasing market volatility of late. The Cboe Volatility Index (VIX), widely regarded as the best gauge of fear in the market, traded at 22.28 on Wednesday and is up more than 83 percent this month.
The Dow recovered most of a 500-point decline on Tuesday. At its session lows, the Dow had fallen 548.62 points, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq had lost more than 2 percent each on Tuesday. Still, the 30-stock Dow has lost more than 450 points this week.
Several factors have conspired to knock markets this month — some earnings disappointment, a brewing conflict between Italy and the European Union over budget spending, criticism of oil power Saudi Arabia over the killing of a dissident journalist and finally, worries that world growth is losing steam.
"Since early February through late September, US stocks were on a tear, while stocks overseas were mostly stumbling," said Ed Yardeni, president and chief investment strategist at Yardeni Research. "So far this month, the US has coupled with the bearish sentiment overseas."
"Valuation multiples have dropped sharply this month, making stocks attractive," he said in a note. This is more of a panic attack "rather than the beginning of a bear market; we believe that the bull market will continue into next year. The next relief rally should be triggered by continued signs of economic growth combined with subdued inflation."
Earlier in the session, the Dow rose more than 100 points on the back of better-than-expected results from Boeing. The aerospace giant also raised its full-year guidance on earnings and sales. The report sent the stock up more than 1 percent.
The results come as investors slog through the busiest week of the earnings season. More than 100 S&P 500 companies are scheduled to report this week, including Amazon, Alphabet and NBCUniversal-parent Comcast. So far, 80 percent of the companies that have reported have topped earnings expectations, according to data from FactSet.
—CNBC's Spriha Srivastava contributed to this report.