Dow Jones Today: Index Falls on Retail Sales Slump

Investors fled retail stocks like Home Depot and Nike for Big Tech, sending Microsoft and IBM higher

By
Terry Lane
Terry Lane
Full Bio
Terry has 25 years experience in journalism and communications, reporting on a range of topics that include personal finance, telecommunications, Congress, government regulations, and criminal justice. He has also worked on technology, energy, and environmental policy issues as a congressional press secretary and owned and published a local community newspaper in North Carolina.
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Published May 16, 2023
A Nike logo is seen at the Nike flagship store on 5th Ave. on December 20, 2019 in New York City.

Stephanie Keith / Getty Images

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1%, or 336 points, on a day of disappointing earnings and macroeconomic reports. Nike (NKE) lost the most, while Microsoft (MSFT) led a small pack of gainers.

Key Takeaways

  • Retail sales concerns help send the Dow down by more than 330 points.
  • An earnings miss and ominous guidance from Home Depot added to consumer worries.
  • Amgen stock fell after the FTC challenged its $28 billion Horizon Therapeutics deal.
  • Big Tech stocks Microsoft, IBM, and Salesforce only stocks to gain.

Nike shares fell 2.8% after a Census Bureau report showed retail sales inched up 0.4% in April, far below the 0.8% increase analysts expected.

Home improvement retailer Home Depot (HD) didn't help the retail outlook when it reported its worst quarterly sales miss in 20 years before markets opened. Its stock sunk 2.1% to its lowest in over a month.

Amgen (AMGN) shares closed down 2.4% after the Federal Trade Commission sued to block its $28 billion purchase of Horizon Therapeutics (HZNP). Horizon shares fell 14% on the news. The FTC alleged Amgen’s acquisition would give it a monopoly over the treatment of two conditions, thyroid eye disease and chronic refractory gout.

Chevron (CVX) lost 2.4% after Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A; BRK.B) revealed it had trimmed its position in the oil company by a fifth. 

3M (MMM) fell 2.6% after saying late yesterday that it had fired a veteran top executive for "inappropriate personal conduct and violation of company policy."

Investors fled to tech, with Microsoft's 0.8% making it the best-performing stock in the index. IBM (IBM) moved up about 0.1% as one of its executives joined the CEO of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI to testify before Congress on AI issues.

Salesforce (CRM) rose 0.6% and Apple (AAPL) ended the day unchanged.

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