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US stocks end banner year on losing note
NEW YORK, Dec 30, 2017 (BSS/AFP) – A sell-off in some tech giants weighed on
the Nasdaq and the broader market Friday, the final trading session of an
otherwise buoyant 2017.
Tech giants Amazon and Apple were among the bigger losers as US stocks
weakened in the last hour of trading, a fall that likely was exacerbated by
light trading volumes in the holiday period.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.5 percent to end 2017 at 24,719.22,
a sour finish to a year that saw the blue-chip index notch the most records
since its creation in 1896.
The broad-based S&P 500 index also dropped 0.5 percent to close the year at
2,673.61, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 0.7 percent to
end at 6,903.39.
Apple, the biggest company by market capitalization, fell 1.1 percent after
apologizing to customers for a problem with its older iPhone batteries that
slowed performance, and announcing it will offer discount replacement
batteries for some models.
Amazon dropped 1.4 percent after the online retailer again found itself
under fire from President Donald Trump, who took to Twitter to accuse the US
Postal Service of undercharging the company for deliveries.
Other shares that fell by more than one percent included Priceline,
Symantec and the biotech company Gilead Sciences.
Goldman Sachs dropped 0.7 percent after disclosing that it expects a $5
billion earnings hit in the fourth quarter due to taxes on the repatriation
of overseas profits under the new tax reform law.
BSS/AFP/SR/1445 HRS