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US and European markets mixed on Wednesday

14 May 2009 08:09 (UTC +04:00)

Baku - APA-Economics. Investors retreated further from the stock market Wednesday and turned to bonds instead after the government reported disappointing retail sales for April, AP reported.
The market has put a two-month rally on hold amid concern that an economic recovery won’t come as fast as hoped. The latest poor indicator came as the Commerce Department said retail sales fell 0.4 percent last month, while economists had expected sales to be flat.
In late afternoon trading, the Dow fell 169.09, or 2 percent, to 8,300.02. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 22.38, or 2.5 percent, to 885.97, while the Nasdaq composite index declined 44.83, or 2.6 percent, to 1,671.09.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by 9 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 1.2 billion shares.
The dollar mostly rose against other major currencies, while gold prices also rose.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 20.76, or 4.2 percent, to 474.42.
Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average rose 0.5 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 declined 2.1 percent, Germany’s DAX index declined 2.6 percent, and France’s CAC-40 fell 2.4 percent.