U.S. stocks ended lower on Tuesday, as fears deepened over a slowing global economy in 2019 amid lowered growth forecast by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and gloomy corporate forecasts for 2019 earnings.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average d 301.87 points, or 1.22 percent to 24,404.48. The S&P 500 declined 37.81 points, or 1.42 percent, to 2,632.90. The Nasdaq Composite Index plunged 136.87 points, or 1.91 percent to 7,020.36.
Shares of Johnson &Johnson, the world's biggest maker of health care products, fell nearly 2 percent, as its sales forecast for 2019 missed analyst expectations, despite its stronger-than-expected earnings results for the fourth quarter of 2018.
Shares of Stanley Black &Decker, a U.S. manufacturer of industrial tools and household hardware tumbled more than 15 percent, as it revised lower its forecast for earnings in 2019 amid "multiple external headwinds," which fell short of market expectations.
Ten of the 11 primary S&P sectors extended losses on Tuesday, with the energy sector down more than two percent, leading the laggards.
Yet shares of eBay surged over six percent after U.S. hedge fund Elliott Management announced on Tuesday a stake of 1.4 billion U.S. dollars in the e-commerce giant in a letter to the latter's board, noting it could lead to eBay's stock price up more than 75 percent to 100 percent from the current level.
The IMF projected on Monday global growth at 3.5 percent in 2019 and 3.6 percent in 2020, 0.2 and 0.1 percentage point below last October's projections.
Although calling the downward revisions "modest," the IMF said the risks to more significant downward corrections are rising amid global trade tensions and tightening financial conditions, according to its latest the World Economic Outlook report.
On the economic front, the U.S. property market has shown sluggish momentum. Existing U.S. home sales plummeted 6.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.99 million units in December, 2018, their lowest level since November 2015, the National Association of Realtors said on Tuesday.
House prices also went up, as the market has been burdened with rising mortgage rates, as well as shortages in land and labor.
