Stock indexes edge lower on Wall Street, paring October’s advance; Avon Products slumps

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Stocks are ending slightly lower on Wall Street but still finished October with a gain.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 73 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 15,545 points Thursday.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell six points, or 0.4 per cent, to 1,756. The Nasdaq composite fell 10 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 3,919.

The S&P 500 rose 4.5 per cent in October, its best gain since July, despite uncertainty caused by the U.S. government shutdown and the near-breach of the nation’s borrowing limit.

Kraft Foods and MetLife fell after their profits missed Wall Street’s forecasts.

Avon Products plunged after saying that the Securities and Exchange Commission is proposing a much larger penalty to settle bribery allegations than it expected. Avon’s profit also missed analysts’ forecasts.