STORY: U.S. stocks ended lower on Thursday, with the Dow dropping nearly four-tenths of a percent and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq each losing half a percent.
While most of the S&P 500 sectors ended lower, Mike Mussio, president of FBB Capital Partners, cautions against reading too much into the market's third straight day of losses.
“We're in a stretch here where it's three consecutive down days right now, but I would call them orderly down days. Nothing too crazy. Nothing too volatile in terms of spiking with individual sectors or even individual names that much. So, I think it's a little bit of profit taking, a little bit of probably window dressing as we get to the close of the third quarter, where institutions are shifting some money around from some of the things that had been winners and starting to look for other places for that capital to go.”
Stocks on the move Thursday included CarMax, which spiraled 20% after the used-car retailer reported lower second-quarter profit.
Shares of Accenture dropped more than 2.5% despite the consulting firm reporting revenue above expectations.
And shares of Costco slipped even after the discount retailer beat fourth-quarter revenue and profit estimates.
Investors are braced for Friday's release of the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, the Fed's preferred inflation measure, which could shape expectations for the path of interest rates.
