NEW YORK: Shares of retailers suffered sharp declines Thursday as US stocks retreated following a disappointing earnings report from Bed, Bath & Beyond.
The home-goods retailer plunged 9.2 percent as it reported a 29 percent drop in third-quarter net income to $126.4 million behind lower comparable-store sales.
Analysts also pointed to US data that showed personal consumption expenditures rose just 0.2 percent in November, disappointing some expectations about the key holiday shopping period.
Shares of Target tumbled 4.4 percent, Best Buy 3.7 percent and Wal-Mart Stores 2.3 percent.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.1 percent to 19,918.88, retreating further from 20,000.
The S&P 500 lost 0.2 percent at 2,260.96, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index shed 0.4 percent to 5,447.42.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries rose 1.5 percent after it agreed to pay $519 million to settle criminal charges that it paid bribes foreign officials to win business in Russia, Ukraine and Mexico.
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba dropped 2.8 percent after the United States Trade Representative said one of Alibaba’s platforms, Taobao.com, was selling a large number of pirated and counterfeit goods.
Alibaba criticized the decision, saying the USTR’s move ignores the Chinese company’s efforts to police goods and may be due to the “current political climate” more than reality.
Weight Watchers International jumped 6.7 percent after Oprah Winfrey appeared in an ad campaign for the company touting a 40-pound weight loss. Winfrey has a stake in the company.
