Influential Salesforce Drags Down Markets

The worst day for Salesforce's stock in nearly 20 years helped drag stock indexes lower on Thursday:

• The Dow fell 330 points, or 0.9%, to 38,111.48.
• The S&P 500 fell 31.47 points, or 0.6%, to close at 5,235.48.
• The Nasdaq fell 183.50, or 1.1% to 16,737.08.

Salesforce, which helps businesses manage their customers, is an influential stock on Wall Street indexes, particularly on the Dow, per the AP. It lost a fifth of its value after reporting weaker revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The cloud-based software company also gave forecasts for revenue in the current quarter and fiscal year that fell short of expectations, causing shares to drop more than 20%. Kohl's fell by a similar percentage after reporting a surprise loss for the latest quarter when analysts were expecting to see a profit.

Helping to support the market were better-than-expected profit reports from a range of companies. Best Buy topped forecasts even though its revenue fell short last quarter, and its stock rose 12%. Foot Locker ran 17% higher after likewise reporting better-than-expected profit despite ringing up sales shy of analysts' forecasts. Stocks also broadly got a boost from easing Treasury yields in the bond market. That helped most stocks on Wall Street to climb, and the smaller stocks in the Russell 2000 index rallied.

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