Close Update: Wall Street Extends Slide to Second Day as Consumer Stocks Weigh

Wall Street’s post-election rally took a pause for a second day on Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average backing off from the key 20,000 level as consumer shares weighed on the benchmarks.

Investors chewed through a heavy slate of data including upwardly revised quarterly economic growth, personal spending and income that missed expectations and initial jobless claims that were higher than predicted by analysts.

But ahead of the holidays trading was mostly subdued, with volumes below average on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq, while the Dow was once again above the norm. On the Dow, 17 of the 30 blue chips fell while seven of the 11 sectors on the S&P 500 retreated.

Wal-Mart Stores ( WMT ) led losses among the blue chips and tugged down other retailers including Target ( TGT ) and Macy’s ( M ) amid indications that holiday sales are coming in lower than last year. In the six weeks through Dec. 10, sales are down 4%, according to data analysis firm The NPD Group. The consumer discretionary group was down 1.1% on the S&P 500.

Energy shares gained 0.4% as West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark US type, added 0.3% to $52.64 a barrel while Brent, the international standard, rose 0.6% to $54.76.

Friday’s calendar offers the November new home sales and the final December University of Michigan consumer sentiment read, both at 10 a.m. ET. The bond market will close an hour early at 2 p.m. with a full market close Monday, Dec. 26.

Here’s where the markets stood by the close:

US MARKETS

Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 23.08 points (-0.12%)

S&P 500 was down 4.22 points (-0.19%)

Nasdaq Composite Index was down 24.01 points (-0.44%)

GLOBAL SENTIMENT

FTSE 100 was down 0.32%

Nikkei 225 was down 0.09%

Hang Seng Index was down 0.8%

Shanghai China Composite Index was up 0.07%

UPSIDE MOVERS

(+) BAS (+26.7%) Gets OK to list shares on NYSE in anticipation of emergence from bankruptcy

(+) GSAT (+23.12%) Received three positive FCC votes for revised proposal for satellite signal frequencies, sells more than 15.2 million shares to Terrapin Opportunity

(+) TKAI (+19.8%) Reached a share purchase agreement with Otic Pharma to become majority shareholder

(+) CETX (+18.09%) FY16 results improve over year ago, beating single analyst estimate

(+) GLP (+13.74%) Subsidiary terminates railcar sublease early

DOWNSIDE MOVERS

(-) OVAS (-54.88%) Announced that it will slow commercial expansion, reassess planned clinical study of Augment and undertake corporate restructuring

(-) RHT (-13.89%) Q3 sales miss expectations, beats on earnings

(-) FRED (-4.77%) Insider sold 4,081 shares

(-) AAAP (-3.93%) JMP Securities cuts to market perform from market outperform

(-) BSM (-1.28%) Stifel Nicolaus downgrades to hold from buy