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Stock market today: Wall Street falls, bringing the S&P 500 index 10% below its July peak

NEW YORK (AP) 鈥 Stocks stumbled on Wall Street, bringing the S&P 500 10% below the peak it reached in July and putting the benchmark index into what's called a 鈥渃orrection.鈥 The S&P 500 fell 0.5%, or 19.86 points, to close at 4,117.
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File - Specialist Gregg Maloney is reflected in a video screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, on Sept. 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

NEW YORK (AP) 鈥 Stocks stumbled on Wall Street, bringing the S&P 500 10% below the peak it reached in July and putting the benchmark index into what's called a 鈥渃orrection.鈥

The S&P 500 fell 0.5%, or 19.86 points, to close at 4,117.37 Friday and is now 10.3% below its July 31 high of 4,588.96. That marks its 10th loss in the last 12 days.

Stocks have fallen the past three months as investors face the reality of higher interest rates, with Federal Reserve officials talking about and the yield on the 10-year Treasury reaching levels . Analysts say investors are also concerned near-term about an escalation of and the strength of company earnings.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 366.71 points, or 1.1%, to 32,417.59. The Russell 2000 index of smaller company stocks slipped 20.07 points, or 1.2% to 1,636.94, its lowest level in about four years.

The Nasdaq was the bright spot in the market, gaining ground on the strength of several big technology and communications companies that reported solid earnings. The index rose 47.41 points, or 0.4%, to 12,643.01.

. Both its profit and revenue for the summer were better than expected. As one of the most massive companies on Wall Street, Amazon鈥檚 stock movements carry huge weight on the S&P 500 and other indexes.

It鈥檚 one of the 鈥淢agnificent Seven鈥 Big Tech stocks that was responsible for much of the stock market鈥檚 climb early this year. But those huge gains also meant big expectations built for them, and , and all fell sharply following their latest reports.

Intel, which is outside the Magnificent Seven, was also helping to support the market. It rose 9.3% after reporting much stronger profit for the summer than analysts expected.

Those gains weren鈥檛 enough to counter broad declines in health care, energy and financial services stocks. Investors also dealt with mixed readings on the economy.

Several big companies slipped after reporting disappointing earnings for their latest quarters. fell 1.9% after reporting a bigger drop in profits than Wall Street expected. Chevron fell 6.7% after also falling short of analysts鈥 profit forecasts.

stumbled 12.2% after reporting disappointing earnings and revenue a day after it reached a tentative contract agreement with the United Auto Workers union.

The market has been unforgiving when it comes to the latest round of corporate earnings, though they have mostly been solid, said Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist for LPL Financial. Analysts polled by FactSet expect earnings growth of about 2.4% overall for companies in the S&P 500.

鈥淭his market has been looking at every single component of what companies are saying,鈥 Krosby said. 鈥淵ou could see this is a market that is very careful about rewarding companies.鈥

A mixed set of economic reports didn鈥檛 appear to change Wall Street鈥檚 expectations for the Federal Reserve鈥檚 next move on interest rates.

A report showed that the preferred by the Federal Reserve remained high last month, but within economists鈥 expectations. It also showed spending by U.S. consumers was stronger than expected, even though growth in their incomes fell short of forecasts.

A separate report said that U.S. consumers鈥 expectations for inflation in the coming year are rising, up to 4.2% from 3.2% last month. That鈥檚 particularly concerning for the Fed, which fears such expectations could lead to a vicious cycle that worsens high inflation.

The Fed has yanked its main interest rate above 5.25% to its highest level since 2001 in hopes of slowing the economy and hurting investment prices enough to starve high inflation of its fuel. The overwhelming expectation is for the Fed to hold rates steady for its second straight policy meeting, and Wall Street is beginning to prepare for rates to stay high for a long time.

The 10-year yield has been catching up the Fed鈥檚 main overnight interest rate as the economy remains remarkably solid and as worries rise about how much debt the U.S. government is taking on to pay for its spending.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury held steady at 4.84%. The swift rise, up from less than 3.50% in the spring to more than 5% earlier this week, has sent prices tumbling for older bonds already trading in the market.

In the biggest picture, the 鈥渂ond bubble has popped鈥 following years of ultra-low yields, according to Michael Hartnett, investment strategist at Bank of America.

But he also warned that markets can remain stuck in trading ranges for a long time following bubble bursts before making major recoveries, such as Japanese stocks after 1989 or internet stocks after 2000. He said in a BofA Global Research report that bond yields may not have a long-term run back lower until Washington, D.C. gets 鈥渟erious about fiscal discipline.鈥

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mostly lower in Europe after rising more solidly in much of Asia.

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AP Writers Zimo Zhong and Matt Ott contributed.

Stan Choe And Damian J. Troise, The Associated Press

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