Wall Street decided to lock in early gains for the year on Thursday. Despite data today showing higher consumer spending, as well as the highest income growth in eight years, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI +1.10%) fell 49 points, or 0.36%, to close the month at 13,860. Yesterday's surprising GDP report, showing that output actually fell for the first time since the recession began, gave too much ammo to the bears, and helped cause a second straight day of modest losses.
Travelers (TRV 0.38%) didn't experience the losses that the rest of the market saw today, and actually led the blue chip index with 1.1% gains. Investors have been impressed with the insurer recently, and shares are trading more than 9% higher already this year. The fact that losses from Hurricane Sandy weren't as extreme as predicted, as well as a few price target hikes from the likes of UBS and Barclays, haven't hurt the stock, either.
United Technologies (UTX +1.83%) continued to feel the fallout from a recent manufacturing debacle disturbingly reminiscent of the Boeing (BA +2.88%) snafu. Today's 1.7% fall comes on the heels of revelations that F-35B aircraft, with propulsion systems made by United Technologies, are having issues with their -- you guessed it -- propulsion systems.
But one of the biggest decliners in the market today was Constellation Brands (STZ 0.78%), which fell17.4% today. The precipitous drop came on news of a lawsuit from the U.S. Justice Department, seeking to stop Anheuser-Busch InBev's acquisition of the remaining 50% of Grupo Modelo that Anheuser doesn't already control. Constellation would have owned 100% of the company that distributes Modelo beverages.
3D Systems (DDD +1.76%), which reports earnings in February, was another market mover today, seeing shares stumble 4.2%. It's been a rough week for 3D Systems. Monday, shares plummeted nearly 14%. The recent pronounced drops oddly haven't had definitive catalysts. Instead, the declines seem to be due to simple market worries that the stock price is overestimating future growth opportunities.
