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World stock markets drop

28 April 2009 08:24 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Vahab Rzayev - APA-Economics. The swine flu gave Wall Street a reason to turn cautious, AP reported.
The Dow Jones industrial average gave up a midday recovery and retreated about 0.6 percent Monday as the swine flu’s death count in Mexico grew to about 150 people from 100.
Airline and other travel-related stocks suffered the sharpest losses Monday. The European Union health commissioner advised Europeans to avoid nonessential travel to Mexico and the United States, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said the recommendation was unwarranted.

The Dow’s losses were mitigated by General Motors Corp., which said it will cut 21,000 jobs by next year and ask the government to exchange GM debt for stock. The bailed-out automaker’s announcement did not erase the possibility of a GM bankruptcy, but made it appear a bit less likely.
The Dow fell 51.29, or 0.6 percent, to 8,025.00, its first drop in three days.
Broader stock indicators also closed lower. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 8.72, or 1 percent, to 857.51, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 14.88, or 0.9 percent, to 1,679.41.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 9.21, or 1.9 percent, to 469.53.
U.S. government bond prices were mixed. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note dipped to 2.91 percent from 3.00 percent late Friday. Bond prices move opposite to yields.
The dollar was mostly higher against other major currencies, while gold prices fell.
Light, sweet crude fell $1.41 to $50.14 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average rose 0.2 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.3 percent, Germany’s DAX index rose 0.4 percent, and France’s CAC-40 fell less than 0.1 percent.