NST Online Business Times : latest
NST Online Business Times : latest |
| US stocks sink as fiscal cliff battle looms Posted: 14 Nov 2012 04:33 PM PST NEW YORK: US stocks tumbled Wednesday as President Barack Obama challenged Republicans to accept tax increases for the wealthy in a deal to avert the year-end fiscal cliff. After opening higher, helped by Cisco Systems's strong earnings, share prices slid and then turned more sharply downward after Obama laid out his terms for a deal in his first news conference since his re-election. Wall Street stocks closed at their lowest level in more than four months after Obama drew a hard line against Republicans in the battle for a compromise to avoid automatic spending cuts and tax increases that take effect in January. "The president's statements failed to inspire investor confidence, thus resulting in an afternoon sell-off," said Briefing.com analysts.
The broad-market S&P 500 lost 19.04 (1.39 per cent) at 1,355.49, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite gave up 37.08 (1.29 per cent) at 2,846.81. Bank of America led the Dow rout, sliding 3.6 per cent, followed by General Electric, down 3.2 per cent. Dow component Cisco was the sole blue-chip gainer, jumping 4.8 per cent after its 48 cents earnings per share for the fiscal first quarter beat analyst expectations by two cents. Abercrombie & Fitch, the retailer of trendy clothing for youth, soared 34.5 per cent after turning in a 40 per cent jump in third-quarter profit and sharply increasing its forecasts for the full year. Office supplies chain Staples added 2.6 per cent after reporting an expected quarterly loss due to impairment charges mainly related to its struggling European business. Excluding that, its earnings per share came in flat, and around analyst expectations. On the Nasdaq, Dell added 1.9 per cent and Facebook gained 12.6 per cent, despite a lifting of a share-sale ban for insiders, while Apple fell 1.1 per cent. Starbucks dropped 2.9 per cent after announcing it would buy tea chain Teavana for US$620 million. -- AFP |
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