Tuesday, March 3, 2015 | 11:08 a.m.
NEW YORK — U.S. stock indexes fell broadly in afternoon trading Tuesday as investors await earnings from the few companies yet to announce results and a jobs report later this week. The Nasdaq fell below 5,000 a day after passing that milestone for the first time since the dot-com era 15 years ago.
KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average fell 97 points, or 0.5 percent, to 18,191 as of 1:06 p.m. Eastern time. The Nasdaq composite fell 38 points, or 0.8 percent, to 4,969.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 13 points, or 0.6 percent, to 2,104. Eight of the 10 industry sectors in the index declined. Energy shares rose 0.7 percent as the price of oil increased.
FORD'S FIZZLE: Ford's U.S. sales fell 1.9 percent last month as dealers lacked the inventory to meet demand for the new F-150 pickup truck. Its stock dropped 42 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $16.14.
General Motors and Chrysler reported gains, but they were smaller than expected. Freezing temperatures and snow kept buyers away from dealers.
SPRINGLEAF LEAPS: Personal finance company Springleaf Holdings rose $10.64, or 28 percent, to $48.68 after it said it would buy Citigroup's OneMain Financial for $4.25 billion. OneMain provides personal loans at more than 1,100 branches across 43 states.
DIVIDEND HIKE: Best Buy gained 39 cents, or 1 percent, to $39.02 after it said it would raise its dividend 21 percent and give shareholders an additional one-time payment. The nation's biggest electronics chain also reported fourth-quarter earnings that were higher than financial analysts had expected.
EARNINGS SO FAR: With nearly all companies in the S&P 500 having reported their latest quarterly results, earnings per share for companies in the S&P 500 index are expected to have risen a healthy 7.7 percent, according to S&P Capital IQ. But financial analysts expect earnings to drop compared to the year-earlier periods for the next two quarters.
NASDAQ MILESTONE: The drop in the Nasdaq follows a 0.9 percent gain on Monday that put it just 40 points from its 5,048.62 peak reached March 10, 2000. The index has changed significantly since then. Gone is the heavy weighting of telecommunications stocks and big bets on Internet companies with little or no earnings.
THE QUOTE: "It's only natural we would get a little flutter after milestone like yesterday," said John Manley, chief equity strategist at Wells Fargo Fund Management. "It may very well go on for a few days."
SUNNY CEOS: The outlook for sales at big U.S. companies over the next six months hasn't been this good in three years, according to a survey of top CEOs released Tuesday by the lobbying group Business Roundtable.
EUROPE SLUMPS: France's CAC 40 fell 1 percent and Germany's DAX lost 1.1 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 dropped 0.7 percent.
ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude rose 92 cents to $50.51 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 17 cents to close at $49.59 a barrel on Monday.
CURRENCIES, BONDS: The dollar was trading at 119.60 yen, down from 120.14 yen. The euro rose to $1.1200 from $1.1183. Bond prices didn't move much. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was inched up to 2.10 percent from 2.08 percent on Monday.
AP Business Writer Yuri Kageyama contributed to this report from Tokyo.
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