* Financials' late sell-off hurts market
* Boeing, Wal-Mart among top drags, but Apple hits record
* Dow, S&P 500 each off 0.9 pct; Nasdaq off 0.6 pct
* For up-to-the-minute market news, click []
(Adds eBay's results after the bell and volume)
By Ellis Mnyandu
NEW YORK, Oct 21 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell on
Wednesday, hurt by a late sell-off in financial shares after
an influential bank analyst recommended selling Wells Fargo
<WFC.N> shares and a wider-than-expected loss from Boeing
<BA.N> disappointed investors.
For most of the session, stocks had traded higher as the
U.S. dollar's weakness underpinned shares of natural resources
companies, while results from Morgan Stanley <MS.N> and Yahoo
Inc <YHOO.O> added to optimism about corporate profits.
Shares of Wells Fargo slid 5.1 percent to $28.90 after
Rochdale Research analyst Richard Bove cut his rating on the
stock saying loan losses were mounting. The KBW bank index
<.BKX> dropped 2.4 percent.
"It just shows you how susceptible we are to bad news
right now," said Stephen Massocca, managing director at
Wedbush Morgan in San Francisco. "We've got such an extended
stock market that a feather of news is enough to cascade it
down 100 points."
The Dow Jones industrial average <> dropped 92.12
points, or 0.92 percent, to end at 9,949.36. The Standard &
Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> lost 9.66 points, or 0.89 percent, to
1,081.40. The Nasdaq Composite Index <> shed 12.74
points, or 0.59 percent, to 2,150.73.
The S&P 500 is up 60 percent from the 12-year closing low
of early March.
Earlier in the day, Wells Fargo had been among several
banks, including Morgan Stanley and U.S. Bancorp <USB.N>,
posting quarterly earnings above Wall Street's forecasts. For
details, see []
But the market took a turn for the worst in the last
half-hour of the session, causing indexes to finish at their
lows of the day. In the Dow, 6 of the 30 stocks rose, 22 fell,
2 were unchanged.
Besides Wells Fargo, other notable casualties in the bank
sector were JPMorgan <JPM.N>, down 3 percent to $44.65 and
Bank of America <BAC.N>, off 2.9 percent at $16.51. But Morgan
Stanley bucked the trend, ending up 4.8 percent at $34.08
following its forecast-beating results.
Boeing shares dropped 2.4 percent to $50.63 following a
wider-than-expected quarterly loss from the aircraft maker.
[]
WAL-MART DROPS, eBAY FALLS LATE
Wal-Mart Stores <WMT.N> shares lost ground, ending down
2.1 percent at $50.63, after the world's largest retailer said
it would slash prices as it readies for what is likely to be a
tough holiday shopping season. The S&P consumer
discretionaries index <.GSPD> declined 1.5 percent.
After the bell, eBay Inc <EBAY.O>, the global e-commerce
site, forecast fourth-quarter profit and revenue at the low
end of analysts' estimates, quashing investors' hopes for a
substantial turnaround at its main marketplaces division
during the crucial holiday season.
In extended-hours trading, shares of eBay fell 5 percent
to $23.75. []
In the regular session, biotechnology company Genzyme Corp
<GENZ.O> was the Nasdaq's top drag after it posted
lower-than-expected quarterly earnings and cut its 2009
outlook. The stock fell 6.2 percent to $51.43.
[]
On the positive side, Apple Inc <AAPL.O> hit an all-time
intraday high, two days after the iPhone and MacBook computer
maker posted earnings that eclipsed Wall Street's forecasts.
Apple ended up 3.1 percent at $204.92 -- a record close -- on
Nasdaq, where it rose as high as $208.71 earlier.
U.S. front-month crude <CLc1> briefly hit $82 a barrel on
the New York Mercantile Exchange, while spot gold rose above
$1,060 an ounce as the euro soared above $1.50 for the first
time since August 2008. U.S. December crude-oil futures
<CLc1>, the new front-month contract, jumped 2.8 percent, or
$2.25, to settle at $81.37 a barrel on the New York Mercantile
Exchange.
Volume was moderate on the New York Stock Exchange, with
1.41 billion shares changing hands, below last year's
estimated daily average of 1.49 billion. On the Nasdaq, about
2.60 billion shares traded, above last year's daily average of
2.28 billion.
On the NYSE and the Nasdaq, decliners beat advancers by a
ratio of 2 to 1.
(Additional reporting by Edward Krudy; Editing by Jan
Paschal)
