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Stocks Erase 2018 Gains: Here's What Stayed Green Today

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Stocks tumbled on Wednesday, erasing the year-to-date gains of at least two major indexes and proving that a number of market-wide and industry-specific headwinds are still weighing heavily on the minds of investors as a brutal October on Wall Street trudges along.

The S&P 500 fell 3.1% on the day and turned red for the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 606 points, also bringing it below its 2017 close. Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 4.4% and finished in correction territory.

The FAANG stocks—Facebook FB, Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) , Apple (AAPL - Free Report) , Netflix (NFLX - Free Report) , and Alphabet GOOGL—all fell sharply on the day.

Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) and Tesla TSLA, which reported earnings after the bell, dropped during regular hours but did see after-hours pops in the initial response to their announcements.

Investors were eager to sell today as murky macroeconomic conditions and fresh corporate reports underscored many of Wall Street’s recent fears.

The latest data from Caterpillar (CAT - Free Report) showed once again that ongoing trade disputes and new tariffs are causing input costs for industrials to rise, while semiconductor giant Texas Instruments (TXN - Free Report) warned that demand for chips was weakening (also read: Did Texas Instruments' Earnings Just Spell Doom for Chip Stocks?).

Just five of the 30 components of the Dow remained in the green today: Procter & Gamble (PG - Free Report) , Boeing (BA - Free Report) , Coca-Cola (KO - Free Report) , Verizon (VZ - Free Report) , and McDonald’s MCD.

Boeing was lifted by the aerospace giant’s strong earnings announcement before the bell. The company managed to beat estimates on the top and bottom lines and raise its full-year guidance.

Other notable stocks booking gains during the selling include Dollar General (DG - Free Report) , which touched a new 52-week high earlier in the day; General Mills GIS, a popular defensive play that has added over 1.5% in the past five days; and Kimberly Clark KMB.

The Dow’s biggest losers during regular hours were United Technologies , Caterpillar, and Microsoft.

Some of the day’s volatility could also be blamed on the latest new home sales figures, which hit a near two-year low.

“The housing numbers were not good,” JJ Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade, said via CNBC. “There’s a lot of uncertainty heading into the end of the year. It just feels like people feel more comfortable spending short-term rather than long term.”

Investors will now look for respite from some of the market’s top performers throughout the course of the bull market, including soon-to-report tech behemoth Amazon. Analysts are expecting the e-commerce leader to post earnings growth of 533% and revenue growth of 30%, according to our latest consensus estimates.

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