The World Blog by humble servant.

U.S. equities opened the abbreviated week on a lower note, with the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average breaking their six-session winning streaks. The two indices lost 0.6% and 1.0%, respectively, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite managed to escape with a relatively modest loss of 0.1%. The Russell 2000 declined 0.9%. Trading was choppy for much of the day as the S&P 500 wrestled with its 50-day simple moving average (2726.82). The benchmark index opened with a loss of 0.3% before rallying to a gain of 0.2% around midday, but selling in the late afternoon took the index back into the red; at its lowest mark of the day, the S&P 500 was down 0.9%. Several factors contributed to Tuesday's decline: A sharp drop in shares of Dow component Wal-Mart (WMT 94.11, -10.67, -10.2%), which disappointed investors with weaker-than-expected fourth quarter results and an FY19 earnings per share outlook that trailed analysts' average expectationA relatively weak 2...

The Dow Jones Industrial Average index recently suffered two trading sessions when it lost more than 1,000 points. But American stocks may face a much bigger meltdown, warns banking giant Morgan Stanley. Read more This stock market is ‘nuts,’ parallels with 2008 crash — investment manager “Appetizer, not the main course,”  the bank’s strategists wrote, describing the beginning of the year for the Dow, as quoted by Bloomberg. The main threat to the stock market is higher bond yields and not faster inflation, according to analysts. A slowdown in the US economy could also be a factor for a decline in stocks. “It’s when growth softens while inflation is still rising that returns suffer most, ” Morgan Stanley wrote.  “Strong global growth and a good first-quarter reporting season provided an important offset. We remain on watch for ‘tricky hand-off’ in the second quarter, as core inflation rises and activity indicators moderate.” Despite the two bad days, the Dow is...

US STOCKS-Walmart worries, bond yields threaten six-day winning streak 7:29 AM ET, 02/20/2018 - Reuters * Futures down: Dow 185 pts, S&P 18.25 pts, Nasdaq 49.25 pts By Sruthi Shankar Feb 20 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures fell more than half a percent as Wall Street returned from a long holiday weekend on Tuesday, a rise in bond yields and underwhelming results from Walmart halting a six-day winning streak for the major indexes. Shares of the United States' biggest brick-and-mortar retailer fell 3.6 percent in premarket trading after it reported a lower-than-expected quarterly profit. Other big decliner was Qualcomm, which fell 2.9 percent after the chipmaker raised its offer to buy NXP Semiconductors NV to $127.50 per share from $110. NXP shares rose 6.2 percent. By 7:01 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis had lost 185 points. S&P 500 e-minis were down 18.25 points and Nasdaq 100 e-minis fell 49.25 points. The S&P 500 racked up its biggest weekly increase i...