Dow, S&P 500 slide for a third straight day as recent rally falters: Live updates

The three major indexes closed Wednesday's session down.

The Dow lost 0.2%, while the S&P 500 shed 0.4%. The Nasdaq Composite was the worst performer with a 0.6% drop.

— Alex Harring

U.S. crude fell 4% on Wednesday, closing at its lowest point since June with retail gasoline hitting its cheapest since January.

The West Texas Intermediate contract for January fell $2.94, or 4.07%, to settle at $69.38 a barrel, while the Brent contract for February declined $2.90, or 3.76%, to settle at $74.30 a barrel.

U.S. crude and the global benchmark have fallen for five straight days, despite efforts by OPEC+ to boost prices by promising to slash supply in the first quarter of 2024.

Prices at the pump in the U.S., meanwhile, have followed oil prices lower to hit $3.22 a gallon on average as of Wednesday, the lowest price since Jan. 3, according to AAA.

— Spencer Kimball

Bloom Energy's order and blacklog trends are unclear for 2024 and its hydrogen expectations appear too high in the near term, according to Bank of America.

Analyst Julien Dumoulin-Smith downgraded Bloom to neutral from buy and cut the stock price target $1 to $16, which implies about 10% upside from the last closing price of $14.46.

Bloom manufacturers fuel cells that convert natural gas, biogas, or hydrogen into electricity without combustion, resulting in low or no carbon dioxide emissions

— Spencer Kimball

For all its efforts this year, the Federal Reserve seems to have pulled off a successful soft landing, according to Omar Aguilar, CEO and chief investment officer of Schwab Asset Management.

"Where we are now, it's almost seeing exactly what the Fed wanted to have. It's almost like the perfect Goldilocks scenario for what they have been working at throughout the year," he told CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" on Wednesday.

As signs of this strength, he cited growing U.S. economic resiliency, decreasing wage growth and "inflation moving to the right places."

"Clearly the soft landing scenario seems to be the most plausible case," he added.

As for how to invest in 2024, Aguilar believes that the mega-cap tech names that outperformed this year will "probably take a backseat."

Instead, he suggested investors focus on more traditional and sensitive areas of the market, such as materials and financials. Investors would be wise to practice being "very conservative" and rotating in and out of assets slowly.

— Lisa Kailai Han

The three major indexes hit session lows with less than an hour of Wednesday's trading day left.

The Dow slipped to 0.2% down, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite fell as much as 0.3% and 0.5%, respectively.

Stocks gave up gains seen earlier in the session. At their best, the Dow and S&P 500 both traded up 0.5%, while the Nasdaq rose as much as 0.7%.

— Alex Harring

Box shares were on track for their worst session since August as investors sold off following a worse-than-expected earnings report.

The cloud stock slipped around 11%. If that holds, it would mark the worst day for the stock since its last post-earnings session on Aug. 30, when shares tumbled 12.3%.

The slide comes a day after the company reported third-quarter earnings that missed the expectations of analysts polled by FactSet on both lines. The company also issued weaker-than-anticipated guidance for the current quarter and full year.

Box shares have dropped more than 23% since 2023 began.

— Alex Harring

As markets barrel toward a presidential election year, history may serve as a guide for what investors can expect.

In fact, data from the Stock Trader's Almanac shows that election years are typically weaker than pre-election years. On average, stocks during pre-election years advance 10.4%, while in election years, they gain 6%.

 CNBC Pro subscribers can read the full story here.

— Sarah Min

The three major indexes were little changed as the final hour of Wednesday's session kicked off.

The Dow and S&P 500 were both near flat around 3 p.m. ET. The Nasdaq Composite inched down around 0.1%.

Stocks had traded notably higher earlier in the day. The Dow neared 170 points in the green at its best point, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq gained 0.5% and 0.7%, respectively, at session highs.

— Alex Harring

Starbucks is on track to finish Wednesday's session higher, ending its longest losing streak ever.

Shares of the coffee chain climbed 1.5% in the session. If that holds, it will break a 12-day negative streak — the longest the stock has seen in its more than three decades on the public market.

The rout comes amid growing investor concerns about performance in China and the state of the consumer in the U.S. It also marks a pullback following a rally on the back of its fourth-quarter earnings last month. Shares are down more than 2% in 2023, underperforming the broader market.

CEO Laxman Narasimhan said Tuesday that the chain is not recovering as much as previously expected in China, which is the company's second-largest market, while emphasizing his faith in the region over the longer term.

— Alex Harring

Airline stocks were jumping on Wednesday in a sluggish session on Wall Street.

The U.S. Global Jets ETF (JETS) was up nearly 3% in afternoon trading. Shares of Delta Air Lines and United Airlines rose 4.9% each, while American Airlines jumped almost 4%.

The moves came after Delta executives reaffirmed the company's fourth quarter guidance for revenue, operating margin and earnings per share at a Morgan Stanley conference.

Airlines could also be getting a boost from the continued decline in oil prices, which could lead to lower costs for the companies.

— Jesse Pound

The Russell 2000 ticked up on Wednesday even as the major averages were little changed.

The small cap index gained 0.6% as of midday Wednesday. It's on pace for around a 0.3% week-to-date gain.

Meanwhile, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite ticked down approximately 0.1% on Wednesday, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded flat. All three major averages are currently on track to end the week in losses.

— Hakyung Kim

These are some of the stocks moving the most in midday trading:

• Brown-Forman — Shares of the alcoholic beverage manufacturer shed 10% after Brown-Forman missed analysts' expectations for the fiscal second quarter.
• Shake Shack — Shares of the burger chain gained 2% following an upgrade to strong buy from outperform at Raymond James.
• Robinhood — The financial technology firm rose more than 7% after Mizuho reiterated the stock as a buy.

Read the full list of stocks moving here.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Energy stocks hurt the S&P 500 as oil prices slid.

The sector fell 1.8%, the only of the 11 that comprise the S&P 500 down more than 1%. The broad index is around flat for the session, meaning energy has somewhat canceled out gains seen elsewhere.

Halliburton, EQT, Baker Hughes, Schlumberger and Marathon Petroleum led the sector lower with drops larger than 3% each. Every stock in the sector traded down with the exception of Kinder Morgan, which climbed 0.3%.

The broad decline in energy stocks came as U.S. crude dropped below $70 a barrel on Wednesday. Information technology and consumer staples also weighed on the benchmark index as both sectors shed 0.2%.

Still, advances elsewhere helped buoy the S&P 500. Consumer discretionary and utilities were the two best performing sectors, with respective gains of 0.7% and 0.6%.

— Alex Harring

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon on Wednesday again criticized cryptocurrency, suggesting that bitcoin and its many cohorts in the $1.6 trillion space should be banned.

"The only true use case for it is criminals, drug traffickers ... money laundering, tax avoidance," the head of the largest U.S. bank by assets said during a Senate Banking Committee hearing. "If I was the government, I'd close it down."

Earlier this year, Dimon called bitcoin a "hyped-up fraud," a comment he later walked back, and prior to that, a "pet rock."

Under questioning from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Dimon and the heads of other big Wall Street banks all agreed that crypto companies should face the same anti-money laundering regulations as they do.

—Jeff Cox

U.S. crude fell more than 4% on Wednesday with retail gas prices hitting their lowest level since early January.

The West Texas Intermediate contract for January fell $3.14, or 4.34%, to $69.14 a barrel, while the Brent crude contract for February shaved off $3.06, or 3.96%, to trade at $74.14 a barrel.

Prices at the pump in the U.S., meanwhile, have followed oil prices lower to hit $3.22 a gallon on average as of Wednesday, the lowest price since Jan. 3, according to AAA.

Oil prices have been under pressure from breakneck production in non OPEC countries, such as the U.S., and fears that China's economy is weakening.

OPEC+, which includes OPEC members and allies like Russia, have tried to halt the fall by promising supply cuts of 2.2 million barrels per day in the first quarter of 2024.

But traders have been skeptical that the group will follow through on the cuts, which are voluntary.

— Spencer Kimball

The U.S. economy is on track to show only marginal growth in the final quarter of 2023, according to an Atlanta Federal Reserve tracker.

GDPNow, which adjusts projections on a real-time basis according to incoming data, is now pointing to growth of just 1.3% in the October-through-December period, an update Wednesday showed. The latest reading was up from 1.2% in the previous update but well below the initial 2.3% estimate in late October.

Adjustments in the expectations for real spending growth and exports fueled the latest adjustments.

—Jeff Cox

The three major indexes sat near flat, giving up advances seen in morning trading.

The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite were all little changed around 11:45 a.m. ET. That marks a pullback from earlier in the day: The Dow was up nearly 170 points at session highs, while the S&P 500 Nasdaq had climbed 0.5% and 0.7% at their respective best points.

— Alex Harring

Homebuilders Lennar and PulteGroup were among the 28 S&P 500 names hitting fresh highs Wednesday. Lennar was trading at all-time high levels going back to when it started trading in 1971, while PulteGroup traded at record highs going back to its public debut in 1972.

Here are some of the other names hitting fresh highs:

• T-Mobile US trading at all-time highs back to the MetroPCS IPO in April 2007.
• Chipotle Mexican Grill trading at all-time high levels back to its IPO in January 2006.
• D.R. Horton trading at all-time high levels back to its IPO in June 1992.

— Sarah Min, Chris Hayes

While a pullback in the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield has been good for investor sentiment, there could be challenges ahead, according to Citi analyst Chris Montagu.

"The fall in US 10yr Yields has been a clear catalyst for the recent style rotation and despite economic conditions remaining uncertain, investor sentiment has improved with a distinct risk-on bias in style performance," he wrote in a note to clients. "This positive sentiment may be short-lived, as US market positioning remains net short with new shorts being added."

Montagu said he continued to favor quality growth stocks despite near-term turmoil.

"Longer-term we continue to recommend Quality Growth, but short-term style volatility is likely to be elevated until the macro outlook stabilizes and style trends emerge," the analyst said.

— Alex Harring

McDonald's shed nearly 1% on Wednesday morning after the fast-food giant said it plans to open more than 8,800 locations and add 100 million members to its loyalty program by 2027. The moves are part of its long-term objective to grow global sales.

The announcement came ahead of the company's investor day on Wednesday, during which McDonald's is expected to detail its plans to continue attracting customers, particularly as Wall Street worries about the economy and the threat to diners' appetites posed by weight-loss drugs.

Next year, the restaurant chain expects systemwide sales growth of 2% in constant currency and net new restaurant growth of 4%. After 2024, McDonald's is projecting systemwide sales growth of 2.5% in constant currency and has plans to grow its restaurant count by 4% to 5% annually.

— Pia Singh, Amelia Lucas

Shares of Brown-Forman dropped more than 10% after the liquor producer missed earnings expectations for its 2024 second fiscal quarter. The company also slashed its guidance for fiscal year 2024, lowering its organic net sales growth and operating income growth expectations.

Brown-Forman reported 50 cents per share in earnings, while analysts polled by FactSet had expected 51 cents per share. Revenue for the period came out at $1.11 billion, also falling slightly short of analysts' expectations of $1.15 billion. The company lowered its

"Evolving global macroeconomic conditions continue to create a challenging operating environment tempering our expectations," the company said in a press release early Wednesday morning.

The stock is down 8.3% for the year.

— Pia Singh

The three major indexes opened Wednesday's session higher.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite traded up by 0.5% and 0.7%, respectively, shortly after 9:30 a.m. ET. The Dow rose 0.4%.

— Alex Harring

Oil prices fell to their lowest levels since early July as recently announced OPEC+ production cuts fail to halt the decline.

The West Texas Intermediate contract for January fell $1.06, or 1.47%, to $71.26, while the Brent contract for February dropped $1.04, or 1.35%, to $76.16 a barrel. That marks the lowest price for both since July 7.

Record production in the U.S. and demand concerns in China have put downward pressure on prices.

OPEC+ last week announced supply cuts of 2.2 million barrels per day for the first quarter of 2024 in an effort to boost prices, but traders are skeptical the group will deliver on the voluntary cuts.

— Spencer Kimball

Labor costs fell more than previously estimated as productivity showed higher gains, the Labor Department reported Wednesday in revised estimates for the third quarter

Unit labor costs, a measure of wages to output, fell 1.2% in the July-through-September period, more than the initial -0.8% estimate last month and the -0.9% Dow Jones forecast.

Productivity, or output per hour, revved higher by 5.2% for the same period, compared to the 4.7% initial estimate in November and the 4.9% Dow Jones expectation.

—Jeff Cox

These are some of the companies making headlines in premarket trading:

• Shopify — The e-commerce platform dipped more than 2% in premarket trading following the company's investor day. To be sure, analysts on Wall Street were somewhat positive following the event, with Citi's Tyler Radke labeling the investor day as " half a victory lap." Other analysts, including Barclays' Trevor Young, think "shares may consolidate a bit here" due to the robust bullish sentiment on the stock.
• Asana – Shares of the work management software company plummeted more than 14% before the bell. Asana posted better-than-expected quarterly results and upbeat guidance, but management warned of ongoing macroeconomic headwinds. Billings for the period also fell short of Wall Street's estimates.
• PayPal — Shares fell 1% in premarket trading after Bank of America downgraded PayPal to neutral from buy. Bank of America said payments company was due for a "transition year" under new CEO Alex Chriss.

Read the full list here.

— Brian Evans

Private payrolls increased by less than economists anticipated in November, another sign that the labor market is cooling.

Companies added just 103,000 workers for the month, the ADP reported Wednesday. That's below the downwardly revised 106,000 in October and the 128,000 consensus forecast for the month from economists polled by Dow Jones.

It's the latest release in a series of job market data expected over the course of the week. On Tuesday, the Labor Department reported that job openings slid to 8.73 million in October, the lowest level since 2021. Investors will watch for data on jobless claims, nonfarm payrolls, the unemployment rate and wages later in the week.

— Alex Harring, Jeff Cox

Apple shares were little changed before the bell after rising 2% during Tuesday's session to finish above a $3 trillion market capitalization for the first time since August.

The iPhone maker officially crossed $3 trillion for the first time in June and briefly touched that level in 2022.

Shares of Apple have rallied nearly 49% since the start of the year. The company's often regarded by Wall Street for its strong cash flows and viewed by many as a safe haven in the market amid periods of uncertainty.

— Samantha Subin, Kif Leswing

The mortgage refinancing market is getting a boost as rates retreat.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances fell to 7.17% from 7.37%, per the Mortgage Bankers Association. That marks to lowest level since August.

Applications for home-loan refinancing jumped as consumers eyed the sliding rates. In fact, application volume was 14% higher than the prior week and 10% higher than the same week in 2022.

— Diana Olick, Alex Harring

Strategist Dirk Willer noted Citi is staying overweight U.S. stocks heading into the end of 2023, even as the bank sees a recession in the new year.

"The market has been pricing a soft landing for the US, though Citi is predicting a recession in mid-2024. However, it is too early to reduce our equity overweight, as the market is not that forward looking," Willer said.

"At this stage, we think equities still have some runway left into year end and early next year, before the upcoming recession should lead to a pull-back," he said in a note.

— Fred Imbert

Japan's Nikkei 225 led gains in Asia, powered mainly by gains in commercial services and utilities' stocks.

The index climbed 1.9% on Wednesday, with global printing company Toppan Holdings, the biggest gainer, up 10.67%.

Electric utility Tokyo Electric Power Company, chip equipment supplier Lasertec and conglomerate Sony Group were among the other big advancers.

— Lim Hui Jie

Australia's gross domestic product expanded 2.1% year-on-year in the third quarter, beating the 1.8% growth expected by economists polled by Reuters and matching the rate seen in the second quarter.

The country's statistics bureau said on a seasonally adjusted, quarter-on-quarter basis, GDP rose 0.2%, driven by increased government consumption and capital investment during the quarter.

However, it also noted that household consumption and GDP growth rates have slowed quarter on quarter due to sustained cost-of-living pressures and higher interest rates.

— Lim Hui Jie

Business sentiment at large Japanese firms improved in December, according to the monthly Reuters Tankan survey.

Reuters reported that "sentiment improved for a second straight month as auto sector continued to recover from last year's semiconductor shortage and supply chain woes."

The sentiment index for manufacturers stood at +12, compared to +6 in November. Separately, the poll also showed the service sector index at +26, down from +27 in November.

A positive figure indicates optimists outnumber pessimists in the sector, and vice versa.

The Bank of Japan's quarterly tankan survey is due next on Dec. 13.

— Lim Hui Jie

Stocks are boasting solid year-to-date gains, but investors are happy to hide out in their money market funds, according to Bank of America.

"Even after a 28% rally on the SPX from its October 2022 low and an 11% rally from the index's late October 2023 low, investors still love cash," wrote Stephen Suttmeier, chief equity technical strategist, in a Monday report.

While the S&P 500 is up nearly 19% on the year, total money market fund assets grew to $5.84 trillion as of Nov. 29, according to the Investment Company Institute, marking a record high. That is up from $4.49 trillion in October 2022, a 27% increase.

Retail investors piled into the funds, with assets climbing more than 44% from October 2022, Suttmeier said.

Who could blame them? After all, the Crane 100 Money Fund Index has an annualized 7-day yield of 5.2%.

-Darla Mercado, Michael Bloom

An uncertain macroeconomic backdrop combined with the 2024 presidential elections means that stocks will be especially volatile next year, according to Chris Senyek.

Such a market environment will force investors to react faster than they were expected to in 2023, said the chief investment strategist at Wolfe Research.

"You have to be more nimble. I don't think it's going to be a buy and hold-type year for any investor," he said Tuesday on CNBC's "Closing Bell: Overtime."

In the next year, Senyek said he'd rather own the groups of stocks that have lagged so far this year. His favorite sector is consumer staples, while he also finds healthcare, utilities and energy attractive.

— Lisa Kailai Han

These are the stocks moving the most in extended hours trading:

• MongoDB — The database stock shed 5%, despite MongoDB beating analyst expectations in its third-quarter earnings.
• Box — The cloud company plummeted 11% after reporting fiscal third-quarter adjusted earnings of 36 cents per share on revenue of $261.5 million. This was lower than FactSet's analyst expectations of 38 cents per share on $262.4 million of revenue.
• Dave & Buster's — The stock slipped 4% after the company posted third-quarter revenue of $466.9 million, lower than lower than analysts' forecasts for $473 million, per LSEG.

Read the full list of stocks moving here.

— Lisa Kailai Han

U.S. stock futures opened little changed on Tuesday night.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell by 18 points, or 0.05%. S&P 500 futures shed 0.06%, while futures tied to the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.09%.

— Lisa Kailai Han