Merck Shares Weigh on Blue Chips; Industrials, S&P Decline As Rate Jitters Creep In; Apple Buoys the Nasdaq
Stocks ended mixed, with Merck, Home Depot and American Express weighing on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, while fellow components 3M and Boeing offset some of the slide.</br></br>The DJIA fell 23.05 to 11216.50. The Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 1.42 to a five-year high of 2361.17. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index shed 2.52 to 1309.04.</br></br>"The market suffered today from the specter of higher interest rates," said Barry Hyman, equity-market strategist at Ehrenkrantz King Nussbaum. "It's worried about Friday's March employment report being quite strong, which will continue to pressure the Federal Reserve to possibly raise rates further."</br></br>Merck lost $1.15, or 3.2%, to $34.84, the Dow industrial average's biggest decliner by far. A jury found that the drug company had failed to warn consumers of painkiller Vioxx's safety problems and held it liable for the heart attack of one of two plaintiffs, awarding him $4.5 million in compensatory damages.</br></br>Home Depot dropped 51 cents, or 1.2%, to 42.14. Housing-related stocks sagged as bond yields resumed their rise.