By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday,
extending a two-session slide, with Wall Street sidelined by worry
about the budget standoff in Washington.
"I wish I could be watching earnings and economic data, but the
goofiness in Washington is pretty much taking all the air out of
the room," said Paul Nolte, managing director at Dearborn
Partners.
"There is very little grey area, and the problem is we won't
know until we get there, so investors are placing their bets on
both sides of the market at this point," Nolte added.
After fluctuating between small gains and losses, stocks fell to
new intraday lows, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI)
losing 54.08 points, or 0.4%, to 14,722.45, after touching an
intraday low of 14,719.63.
The S&P 500 index (SPX) shed 8.44 points, or 0.5%, to
1,647.01, after touching an intraday low of 1,646.47, with the
consumer discretionary and energy sectors leading losses.
Alcoa Inc. (AA) rose 3.5%, a day after the aluminum producer
reported better-than-anticipated quarterly earnings. (Read more on
Alcoa results:
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2013/10/08/what-alcoas-results-say-about-global-manufacturing/.)
Shares of Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc. (JOSB) and Men's Wearhouse
Inc. (MW) both rallied after Men's Wearhouse spurned the former's
buyout offer.
The Nasdaq Composite (RIXF) declined 43.16 points, or 0.7%, to
3,650.68, after touching an intraday low of 3,650.03.
Declining stocks outnumbered advancers by two to one on the New
York Stock Exchange, where 220 million shares traded as of 11:30
a.m. Eastern. Composite volume hit 1.2 billion shares.
Treasury prices were mixed, with the yield on the 10-year note
(10_YEAR) used in figuring mortgages and other consumer loans up 1
basis point at 2.645%.
The dollar (DXY) gained against the currencies of major U.S.
trading partners and crude (CLX3) and gold (GCZ3) fell, with oil
futures off nearly $2 at $101.78 a barrel and gold futures down $25
at $1,299.50 an ounce.
Janet Yellen, now vice chairwoman of the Federal Reserve, will
be nominated to succeed Ben Bernanke as Fed chief, with an
announcement expected to come from President Barack Obama in the
afternoon.
At 2 p.m. Eastern time, the central bank will release minutes
from its September meeting, at which the Fed unexpectedly refrained
from tapering its $85 billion in monthly asset purchases.
The development comes as Democrats and Republicans on Capitol
Hill continue to spar over the partial government shutdown and
hiking the debt limit.
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