Investing.com – US stocks closed mostly lower on Tuesday weighed by a slump in technology led by Apple after a report suggested that the tech giant will slash its iPhone X sales forecasts for the quarter.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed lower at 24,745. The S&P 500 closed 0.10% lower, while the Nasdaq Composite closed at 6935.79, down 0.34%.
Shares of Apple closed more than 2% lower after Taiwan’s Economic Daily, citing unidentified sources, that Apple’s iPhone X sales will fall short of expectations. The slump in Apple weighed on the broader market offsetting solid gains in energy.
Energy was one of the best performing sectors of the session buoyed by a sharp uptick in crude oil prices amid fresh supply disruptions following reports that a major oil pipeline explosion Libya threatens to slash supply by roughly 90,000 barrels per a day.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for January delivery rose 2.6% to settle at $59.97 a barrel after surging past $60 a barrel intra-day for the first time since June 2015.
On the economic front, investors mulled over a pair of mixed regional manufacturing indices for December showing the Richmond Fed manufacturing index undershot expectations while the Dallas Fed manufacturing index gained more than expected in December.
In corporate news, shares of JC Penney Company Inc Holding (NYSE:JCP) closed more than 5% higher following a Mastercard SpendingPulse report showing holiday sales from Nov.1 to Dec. 24 rose to the highest since 2011.
'Bulls and Bears' on Wall Street
The top Dow gainers for the session: Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) up 1.1%, Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) up 0.9% and Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) up 0.8%
Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) down 2.7%, Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) down 1.4%, and DowDuPont Inc (NYSE:DWDP) down 1%, were among the worst Dow performers of the session.