On Wall Street, Constellation Brands tumbled 6.6% after the beer, wine and spirits company warned that it’s seen a slowdown in purchases of its high-end beers, particularly among its Hispanic customers. That pushed it to slash its forecast for profit this fiscal year.
Kraft Heinz fell 7% after announcing that it’s splitting into two, a decade after a merger of the brands created one of the biggest food companies on the planet.
One of the companies will include shelf stable meals and include brands such as Heinz, Philadelphia cream cheese and Kraft Mac & Cheese. The other will include the Oscar Mayer, Kraft Singles and Lunchables brands. The official names of the two companies will be released later.
Among the stock market’s few gainers was PepsiCo, which rose 1.1% after an investment firm said it sent suggestions to the company’s board to reaccelerate its growth and boost financial performance. The investor, Elliott Investment Management, has a history of buying into companies and pushing for big changes that can lead to better stock performance.
All told, the S&P 500 fell 44.72 points to 6,415.54. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 249.07 to 45,295.81, and the Nasdaq composite sank 175.92 to 21,279.63.
In stock markets abroad, indexes slumped across Europe, with Germany’s DAX losing 2.3%. That followed a more mixed finish in Asia, where indexes rose 0.9% in Seoul but fell 0.5% in Hong Kong.
