Stocks Slide; Procter & Gamble Is the Dow's Biggest Loser

DailyFinance Staff
Updated


Stocks tumble as traders do some profit taking.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) slid 209 points, ending near its lowest level of the day. Most of the selling came in the final 30 minutes of trading. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) lost 23 and the Nasdaq (COMPX) dropped 35.

All three indexes edged lower for the second week in a row -- the first back-to-back weekly losses since last November.

Tide cleaning products are on display at the Greenfield Tide dry cleaners Monday, Aug. 30, 2010, in Leawood, KS. Bloomberg News/Ed Zurga
Getty Images

Procter & Gamble (PG) was the biggest loser among the Dow's 30 stocks, leading the consumer staples sector lower. P&G fell more than 2 percent after setting up a four-way race between internal candidates to succeed A.G. Lafley as CEO.

Intel (INTC) added nearly 1 percent on a report that Samsung (SSNLF) will begin making some Android phones with Intel inside.

AIG (AIG), which was kicked out of the Dow a few years back, fell 3 percent. The company's divestiture plan suffered a setback: It did not receive an expected deposit on the sale of its plane-leasing unit to a Chinese group.

Sony (SNE) fell 3 percent even though it retained two investment advisers to help review the demand of an activist shareholder to spin off its entertainment division.

Retail stocks advanced on signs that consumers are growing more confident in the economy. The University of Michigan's index of consumer sentiment rose to its highest level in nearly six years. Shares of Gap (GPS) rose 1.5 percent.

There were a number of big movers on earnings news:

  • Krispie Kreme Doughnuts (KKD) surged 21 percent.

  • Omnivision Technologies (OVTI) rallied 19 percent.

  • Guess? (GES) rallied 8 percent.

  • Lion's Gate (LGF), the studio behind the "Hunger Games" and "Twilight" hits, rose 3 percent to an all-time high.

  • But Palo Alto Networks (PANW) slid 12 percent.

  • And Pall Corp. (PLL), which makes purification equipment, fell 5 percent.

Elsewhere:

  • Kinder Morgan (KMI) lost ground after cancelling a $2 billion project to build an oil pipeline from Texas to California.

  • And Netflix (NFLX) gained nearly 2 percent after being added to the Nasdaq 100 index.

–Produced by Drew Trachtenberg

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