Stocks retreated on Thursday, with U.S. financials falling sharply amid ongoing concerns about the now-halted foreclosure process - but at least investors could digest strong earnings from Google Inc., released after markets closed.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed at 11,094.57, down 1.51 points. The broader S&P 500 closed at 1173.81, down 4.29 points, or 0.4 per cent. In Canada, the S&P/TSX composite index closed at 12,619.69, down 53.62 points, or 0.4 per cent.
Among financials, Bank of America Corp. fell 5.2 per cent, Citigroup Inc. fell 4.5 per cent and JPMorgan Chase & Co. fell 2.8 per cent - just one day after JPMorgan reported better-than-expected third quarter results. Although financials have been underperforming the broader market during its recent recovery, this latest setback emanates from concerns about the U.S. foreclosure process, which increasingly is being described as a mess.
Foreclosures have now been halted nationwide, and states are conducting investigations into so-called "robo-signers," where one signature would approve hundreds of foreclosures in a day.
Meanwhile, education company Apollo Group fell 23.2 per cent after the company withdrew its guidance for the fourth quarter. The decline sent Devry Inc. down 16.8 per cent, ending a bad day for education stocks.
However, Yahoo Inc. rose 4.5 per cent amid speculation that AOL Inc. is considering bidding for the search engine company with backing from private equity firms. After markets closed, Google Inc. reported that its quarterly earnings rose 32 per cent, to $2.2-billion (U.S.), or $6.72 a share. After excluding certain items, earnings were $7.64 a share, handily beating expectations among analysts for earnings of $6.68 a share. Google shares fell 0.4 per cent during regular trading hours.
In Canada, commodity producers were generally lower, despite mixed action with commodities. Gold rose to $1,377.60 an ounce, up $7.10 - but Barrick Gold Corp. fell 0.7 per cent and Goldcorp Inc. fell 0.2 per cent. Crude oil fell to $82.69 a barrel, down 32 cents. Suncor Energy Inc. fell 1.7 per cent and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. fell 0.4 per cent.