By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com – The S&P 500 closed lower Wednesday, as cyclical sectors of the market slipped with financials and energy leading the broader market lower.

It fell 0.26 percent, the dropped 0.58% or 160 points and the Nasdaq lost 3.333%. The was also down 1%.

The week’s energy market was slow to start, with oil prices falling by more than 1%. This is despite data that showed a draw last week of 3.2million barrels from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

In a further hit to oil prices, the International Energy Agency warned of a “reprieve from the price rally […]Due to the rising oil supply

Valero Energy (NYSE:), APA(NASDAQ:), Phillips 66 – The energy sector was lower.

As concerns mount about the potential impact of new Covid-19 European restrictions on global economic growth, financial stocks fell by 1%.

Goldman Sachs (NYSE:), State Street (NYSE:), Morgan Stanley The biggest droppers were (NYSE:), with the latter falling more than 33%.

The top two performing industries for this year are energy and financial, which is up 34% and 45%, respectively.

Even amid the pandemic doom, Covid-19 therapies were a bright spot. Moderna (NASDAQ) submitted a request to FDA to approve vaccine booster doses to everyone aged below 18. The shares closed the day higher than 4%

Both consumer discretionary and slumps in the economy mirrored each other, however, they added to their gains. Target Retailers were weighed.

Target (NYSE:), fell over 4% after its quarterly results exceeded expectations. However, concerns regarding margins pressures were raised by Chief Executive Brian Cornell’s statement that it was not likely for the retailer to pass higher costs on to customers.

Lowe’s (NYSE:) was marginally higher after raising its full-year guidance following quarterly results that beat on both the top and bottom lines.

TJX Inc. (NYSE:) meanwhile delivered third quarter results that exceeded Wall Street expectations. Same-store sales increased 14% above the expectation of a 3% increase. Its shares jumped 

Visa (NYSE):, a key Dow component, fell nearly 5% following Amazon’s announcement that it will no longer accept payments using Visa credit cards from the UK.

The strength of big tech helped to keep losses in the wider market under control.

Meta, formerly Facebook (NASDAQ:) was lower, while Amazon (NASDAQ:),  Microsoft  (NASDAQ:), Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:) and Apple (NASDAQ:) were higher.

Apple stood out as the standout performer, closing more than 2 percent. A reduction in lead time points to an improvement in supply chain issues. 

“What we do believe from the data is that Apple’s supply is gradually catching up to demand for both iPhone and Macs at this point in the cycle,” Goldman Sachs said in a note. 

On the economic front, October housing starts fell 0.7% month-over-month to a 1.52 million units, missing economists’ estimates got a rise to 1.58 million.

“We continue to blame the weakness on supply constraints,” Jefferies said in a note. “Demand for housing has improved in recent months corroborated most recently by yesterday’s home builder sentiment index which rose to its highest level since May.”