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US markets plunge on Thursday

22 May 2009 08:42 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Vahab Rzayev - APA-Economics. Another bad signal from the job market and anxiety over a possible downgrade of British government debt sent stocks sharply lower Thursday, AP reported.
Major stock indicators slid at least 2 percent, cutting 160 points off the Dow Jones industrial average, after continuing claims for unemployment benefits set their 16th straight weekly record.
In late afternoon trading, the Dow fell 160.57, or 1.9 percent, to 8,261.47. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 18.78, or 2.1 percent, to 884.69, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 37.13, or 2.2 percent, to 1,690.71.
Stocks fell Tuesday and Wednesday, but the S&P 500 index is still up 33.5 percent since tumbling to a 12-year low on March 9. The index is essentially flat for the year.
About four stocks fell for every one that rose on the New York Mercantile Exchange, where volume came to 937.2 million shares compared with 987.5 million shares around the same time Wednesday. Volume is likely to remain light ahead of the long holiday weekend.
The dollar was mostly lower against other major currencies, while gold prices rose.
Light, sweet crude fell 99 cents to settle at $61.05 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after rising sharply earlier in the week. Investors worried that continued sluggishness in the economy would reduce demand.
Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average rose 0.2 percent. In Europe, stocks fell after the S&P warning about Britain’s debt. The FTSE 100 in London tumbled 2.8 percent. Germany’s DAX index fell 2.7 percent, and France’s CAC-40 lost 2.6 percent.