U.S. crude prices jumped above $44 a barrel for the first time, helping the Dow Jones industrials average fall 58.92 points, or 0.6%, to 10,120.24. The decline halted the Dow's longest winning streak since November. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 6.93 points, or 0.6%, to 1,099.69. But tech-heavy indexes really felt the impact.
The Nasdaq composite index fell 32.67 points, or 1.7%, to 1,859.42, while the InformationWeek 100 fell 6.54 points, or 2.3%, to 280.18. The Nasdaq-100 tracking stock fell 73 cents to $34.23 as volume continued to be well below average, at just over 85.8 million shares.
IBM fell 98 cents to $85.71 and Intel fell 73 cents to $24.17 after A.G. Edwards lowered its ranking on the semiconductor industry.
As oil prices continued their climb, investors feared that consumers and businesses could face even higher fuel costs in coming months. The contract for September deliver of light crude rose 33 cents to $44.15 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the third straight closing record. Meanwhile, the Commerce Department reported that consumers slashed their spending in June by 0.7%, the largest amount in three years, reinforcing other recent indications that the economic recovery slowed at the end of the second quarter.
See the full listing of all the companies in the InformationWeek 100 and the top 5 percentage winners and losers for the last closing at informationweek.com/stocks.