Dow's early stumble pushes it back into negative territory for 2018
The Dow Jones Industrial Average early Thursday was slumping, pushing the blue-chip gauge into the red for the year and threatening a second straight decline as consumer-staples shares declined. Most recently, the Dow was off about 80 points, or 0.3%, at 24,667, with shares of Procter & Gamble Co. and Apple Inc. weighing on the average. For the year, the Dow is off 0.2%, but it is still maintaining a weekly advance of 1.3%. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 index is up 0.8% for the first four months of the year and 1.5% for the week, so far. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 5.2% so far in 2018, and up 2.2% for the week thus far. P&G shares were under pressure after the seller of Gillette razors and Crest toothpaste agreed to acquire a consumer-health business from Germany's Merck KGaA .
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