NST Online Business Times : latest
NST Online Business Times : latest |
| US stocks decline amid Greek woes Posted: 04 Nov 2011 05:29 PM PDT NEW YORK: US equity markets fell Friday as investors braced for a Greek confidence vote that could oust the prime minister and trigger fresh eurozone debt turmoil. A mixed US jobs report offered some small signs of improvement, but reminded that high unemployment was well-entrenched in the slowly growing economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 61.23 points (0.51 per cent) to close at 11,983.24. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite shed 11.82 points (0.44 per cent) to 2,686.15, while the S&P 500-stock index, a broader measure of the markets, lost 7.92 points (0.63 per cent) to 1,253.23.
"Traders today seemed particularly disappointed by the G20's unwillingness to throw its financial support behind Europe," said Elizabeth Harrow at Schaeffer's Investment Research. "The group's two-day meeting failed to produce any major progress toward bolstering the European Financial Stability Facility," the eurozone rescue fund, the analyst said. The Europe woes overshadowed a mixed October jobs report from the Labor Department. The US unemployment rate unexpectedly slipped to 9.0 per cent from 9.1 per cent the prior month. The number of net new jobs added -- 80,000 -- disappointed, though improvement was seen in upward revisions to prior months' numbers. "The synopsis of the October report is that it matches a low-growth environment. It also reveals, as have past reports, that there is still much work to be done to improve the labour market," said Patrick O'Hare at Briefing.com. Big US bank stocks dropped. Bank of America slid 6.1 per cent, Morgan Stanley lost 1.4 per cent, Goldman Sachs fell 2.5 per cent and JPMorgan Chase shed 1.2 per cent. The long-awaited Wall Street debut of online daily deals firm Groupon was a runaway success. Groupon raised US$700 million with the largest IPO by an Internet company since Google, which reaped US$1.7 billion when it went public in August 2004. Groupon offered 35 million shares priced at US$20. Its shares, trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol GRPN, soared 30.1 per cent to US$26.11. Computer chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices slipped 1.1 per cent to US$5.67 after announcing late Thursday it would slash 10 per cent of its workforce, or about 1,400 jobs, to cut costs. Embattled insurance giant American International Group dropped 2.9 per cent to US$23.91 after reporting a bigger-than-expected US$4.1 billion quarterly loss. Coffee firm Starbucks soared 6.7 per cent to US$44.19 after beating quarterly earnings forecasts. -- AFP |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Business Times : latest To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 ulasan:
Catat Ulasan