Wall Street pulls back as Apple drags; yen weakens

By Lewis Krauskopf

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The yen lost ground against the U.S. dollar on Thursday amid speculation Japan could expand its monetary stimulus soon, while a drop in Apple shares weighed down Wall Street.

U.S. oil prices slid, after earlier hitting six-month highs, on signs of another storage build.

U.S. Treasury prices fell before the government was due to sell $15 billion in new long-dated bonds.

Major U.S. stock indexes fell, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq the biggest loser, while the pan-European FTSEurofirst stocks index <.FTEU3> shed 0.6 percent. Stocks had posted sharp declines on Wednesday following a strong rally a day earlier.

"This week there is a lack of big macro news, so the market is hunting around for something to latch on to," said John Canally, investment strategist and economist for LPL Financial in Boston.

 

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was down 61.23 points, or 0.35 percent, at 17,649.89, the S&P 500 <.SPX> was down 8.83 points, or 0.43 percent, at 2,055.63 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> fell 47.54 points, or 1 percent, to 4,713.15.

Apple shares fell 2.5 percent, and were the biggest drag on all three major indexes.

Shares of department store operator Kohl's were the biggest decliners on the benchmark S&P 500 after a surprise drop in sales, a day after disappointing results from Macy's dragged on retailers.

"As far as the U.S. market, the concern is over the consumer," said Eric Kuby, chief investment officer at North Star Investment Management in Chicago.

Data showed the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week to the highest in more than a year, raising further concerns about the health of the labour market.

European stocks fell in choppy trading, weighed by some disappointing results, including from Dutch insurer Aegon and French bank Credit Agricole .

MSCI's global gauge of stocks <.MIWD00000PUS> fell 0.5 percent. The index is off about 1 percent for 2016, with stocks rebounding after a rough start to the year but little changed in recent weeks. Concerns about the global economy persist and investors are responding to diverging policies between the U.S. Federal Reserve and other major central banks

The yen fell 0.3 percent against the dollar, pressured by speculation the Bank of Japan could expand its monetary stimulus as soon as next month.

Against a basket of currencies including the yen, the dollar <.DXY> gained 0.2 percent

U.S. oil prices dipped after jumping to six-month highs when buying driven by a forecast for tighter global supplies gave way to selling on signs of another storage build at the hub for U.S. crude futures.

Brent crude was down 70 cents, or 1.5 percent, at $46.90 per barrel, after rising 52 cents at one point. U.S. crude's WTI was down 50 cents, or 1 percent, at $45.73. It hit a six-month high of $47.02 earlier.

Oil prices have recovered some ground after touching 12-year lows earlier in 2016.

U.S. Treasury prices fell as the government was due to sell 30-year bonds, the final sale of $62 billion in new coupon-bearing supply this week. The U.S. government saw very strong demand for a sale of 10-year notes on Wednesday and of three-year notes on Tuesday.

Benchmark 10-year notes > were last down 5/32 in price to yield 1.7464 percent, up from 1.73 percent late on Wednesday.

(Additional reporting by Karen Brettell, Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Barani Krishnan in New York, Tanya Agrawal in Bengaluru, Nigel Stephenson in London; Editing by Bernadette Baum)