Hot Topic, Blackboard Pace a Broad Decline
A decline for small-caps reflected a flood of traders bracing for the upcoming reports on banks' stress tests and consumers' employment.</br></br>For stocks large and small, the day's trading revolved around economic sentiment. Economically sensitive sectors like materials, consumer discretionary and industrials fell, while defensive areas such as health care and utilities rose.</br></br>The bank stress-test results were partly to blame as few investors wanted to be heavily exposed to the market with such a highly watched report on tap, but consumer stocks also were hurt by concern over a nonfarms payroll report on tap for Friday morning.</br></br>And, as small-caps are more economically sensitive than their larger counterparts, they fell broadly. Notably, the Russell 2000 index of small-capitalization stocks lost 12.15 points, or 2.41%, to 492.94. Year-to-date, the index is down 1.3%.</br></br>The Standard & Poor's Small Cap 600 fell 5.89, or 2.18%, to 264.43.