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WALL STREET STOCKS FINISH LOWER AS TECH, PRIVATE EQUITY FIRMS FALL

Major U.S. stock indexes ended lower on Thursday, with technology shares including Apple AAPL.O declining, and shares of private equity firms also falling.

Apple closed down 1.4%.

Private equity companies fell after Blue Owl Capital's OWL.N decision to sell $1.4 billion in assets and freeze redemptions at one of its funds to manage debt and return capital. Blue Owl ended down 5.9%. Shares of Apollo Global Management APO.N were down 5.2%.

Shares of Walmart WMT.O finished 1.4% lower after trading higher earlier in the session. The retailer's new chief executive gave a conservative fiscal 2027 forecast, while the company also reported online demand from U.S. customers looking for quick deliveries bolstered revenue in the holiday quarter.

The S&P 500 industrials index .SPLRCI, however, ended up 0.8%, managing another record closing high, and energy .SPNY hit a record intraday high before paring gains. Energy finished up 0.6% following gains in oil prices tied to escalating tensions between the United States and Iran.

Here is the closing market snapshot:

(Caroline Valetkevitch)

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