Technical Levels Breached as Sell-Off in U.S. Stocks Accelerates

(Bloomberg) -- A fourth straight drop in the S&P 500 Index pushed the benchmark gauge below a key technical indicator.

The measure slumped 0.9 percent to 2,743 as of 10:17 a.m. in New York, taking it below its average price for the past 200 days for the first time since mid-February. A break below the 200-day moving average is considered a bearish signal by technical analysts.

Previous violations of this technical support coincided with, or were soon followed by, sharp retreats in the benchmark index, which has failed to hold above 2,800 for long after hitting all-time highs in September.

Some of the large-cap tech stocks that had been protecting the market from suffering big drawdowns in recent sessions are struggling in early trading Thursday, with shares of Alphabet and Facebook each down more than 1 percent.

Stocks have been under pressure this week after a torrid start to the year as forecasts for economic growth get slashed and investors remain on edge over the Chinese-American trade war.

The S&P 500 popped above 2,800 earlier in the week but failed to hold the round-number milestone that capped rallies in October and November. The index remains higher by 9.7 percent in 2019.

To contact the reporter on this story: Luke Kawa in New York at lkawa@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeremy Herron at jherron8@bloomberg.net, Dave Liedtka

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