Stock market news: Dow sinks more than 200 points

Traders
work on the floor of the NYSE in New York
Thomson Reuters

The three major US indices slipped Wednesday as an
earnings-fueled rally lost steam and ahead of Federal Reserve
meeting minutes, with Wall Street still on
edge following a sell-off that had battered global
stocks last week. 

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 0.84%, or more
than 200 points. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.59%, and the S&P
500 was down 0.51%.

“The mood has turned sour, reflecting a mix of political
noise a few soggy data prints,” said Mark McCormick, a strategist
at TD Securities.

A strong start to earnings season had earlier helped stocks
stage a recovery. Big banks posted third-quarter
earnings that flew past Wall Street expectations. Netflix
also beat and added nearly
seven million subscriptions, while IBM
missed. 

Before the US open, government data showed housing starts
fell more than expected in September. Homebuilding across the
country dropped 5.3% last month, the Commerce Department said,
with particularly weak construction activity in the
South. 

Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon
Macroeconomics, said Hurricane Florence probably played a role in
downward revisions to August housing starts. But a potential
slowdown in residential real estate activity has been widely
anticipated.

“Permits are much less susceptible to weather effects than
starts,” he said. “The bottom line here is straightforward; the
housing market has peaked for this cycle.”

Later Wednesday, the Federal Reserve is set to
release meeting minutes from its latest
gathering. With unemployment at multi-decade lows and signs
wage growth could pick up, many expect to find signals that
another rate hike is coming this December.

Heading into the first day of legalized pot in Canada,
cannabis stocks
tumbled. Tilray shed nearly 5%, while Canopy Growth was down
about 4%. Ottawa is the second in the world to authorize
recreational marijuana use nationwide.