Stocks fall on surprising drop in home sales

Dan Burrows
Updated

An unexpected decline in existing home sales outweighed better news on the labor front, leaving stocks broadly lower Thursday.

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU) lost 41 points, or 0.4 percent, to finish at 9,707, while the S&P 500 ($INX) gave up 10 points, or 1 percent, to settle at 1,051. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite ($COMPX) lost 24 points, or 1.1 percent, to close at 2,108.

The National Association of Realtors said sales of existing homes fell 2.7 percent in August, putting an end to a four-month winning streak and coming in well below economists' average forecast. The news took a toll on financial stocks. Shares in Bank of America (BAC) retreated nearly 3 percent, Citigroup (C) dropped 2 percent, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) fell 1.5 percent and Wells Fargo (WFC) declined 1 percent.

For more on stocks on the move today, be sure to check out BloggingStocks' market wrap up.

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