By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Gold prices declined again on Wednesday, a day after spot gold had its sharpest single-day drop in over five years, while major stock indexes mostly eased with Netflix shares down after the company’s outlook disappointed.
Gold, one of the year’s best-performing trades, slid as investors booked profits. It remains on course for its strongest year since the 1979 oil crisis and is up more than 50% so far this year. Spot gold was last down 1.73% at $4,052.69 an ounce.
Shares of Netflix were down more than 9% in early trading, and Wall Street’s three major indexes also were lower. Investors are getting ready for results later from Tesla, which will kick off earnings season for the so-called Magnificent Seven group of megacap stocks. Tesla shares were down about 1%.
“We’ve seen a lot of volatility in the markets lately. It’s both on the upside and on the downside, and that shows a degree of uncertainty in the market,” said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder in New York. “We are in earnings season, and that always means uncertainty,” he said. “Tariff issues are still out there. War in the Middle East is still out there as an issue. We try to focus on companies themselves and how they are doing.”
Russia said on Wednesday that it was still preparing for a potential summit between President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 118.69 points, or 0.25%, to 46,806.05, the S&P 500 fell 22.73 points, or 0.33%, to 6,713.39 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 165.07 points, or 0.70%, to 22,791.98.
MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe fell 2.63 points, or 0.26%, to 992.22. The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.07%.
London stocks rose for a third consecutive day as investors increased bets on interest rate cuts from the Bank of England after data showed inflation unexpectedly held steady. The blue-chip FTSE 100 gained 1.1%.
U.S. Treasury yields edged higher after falling for two straight sessions, though the market was range-bound as the U.S. government shutdown went into its 22nd day with no resolution in sight. The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes rose 1.1 basis points to 3.974%, from 3.963% late on Tuesday.
The U.S. Federal Reserve also meets next week, and investors have almost fully priced in a 25-basis-point rate cut.
The dearth of U.S. economic data due to the ongoing shutdown means that policymakers could be left flying blind at the meeting, a less-than-ideal situation as they remain divided over which risks deserve the most attention. Trump on Tuesday rebuffed a request by top Democratic lawmakers to meet until the three-week-old U.S. government shutdown ends.
