NEW YORK — Another drop in oil prices helped drive the stock market to a loss Thursday, as major indexes gave up their gains from the day before. Chevron, Exxon Mobil and other energy companies led stocks down.
Benchmark U.S. oil sank 70 cents to close at $43.96 a barrel in New York, extending a slump that has slashed prices by more than half over the past year.
“Given the big drop that we’ve had, the big question is: When does oil hit bottom?” said Jeff Carbone, a senior partner at Cornerstone Financial Partners in Charlotte, N.C. “I don’t think oil will bottom out until a company or a country flinches and cuts production. Right now producers are still pumping as much as they can.”
It was Apple’s first day as a member of the Dow Jones industrial average, as the maker of iPhones, iPads and other gadgets replaced AT&T. Goldman Sachs also took Visa’s title as the most expensive stock among the blue chips. Because the Dow weighs its 30 companies by their share price instead of their market value, a stock split for Visa pushed the payment processor off its perch.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 10.23 points, or 0.5 percent, to 2,089.27.
The Dow Jones industrial average lost 117.16 points, or 0.65 percent, to 17,959.03. The Nasdaq composite rose 9.55 points, or 0.2 percent, to 4,992.38.
Thursday’s economic news gave investors little encouragement to drive stocks up. An index aimed at gauging the economy’s momentum rose by a slight amount for a second straight month, and the Labor Department reported that weekly applications for unemployment aid edged up by 1,000 to 291,000 last week.
Phil Orlando, chief equity strategist at Federated Investors, thinks the market could hit a rough patch soon, with the S&P 500 sliding 5 percent or more in the coming months. “Why do we think that? Because what hit the fourth quarter hit in the first quarter: the stronger dollar, the decline in energy prices and the weather.”
