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US market incides slide

11 June 2009 08:34 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Vahab Rzayev - APA-Economics. US stocks are coming off the best three-month run since 1982, as measured by the Dow industrials, and the best since the 1930s, as measured by the S&P 500

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 24 points, or 0.3%, to 8,739.02. The S&P 500 index lost almost 3 points, or 0.4%, to 939.15. The Nasdaq Composite index lost 7 points, or 0.4%, to 1,853.08.

The Dow climbed above its 2008-end level only to erase its year-to-date gain by the close of trading for the fifth session in the past seven. The benchmark last ended above its Dec. 31 close of 8,776.39 on Jan. 6.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq have been positive for the year since May and April and are up 4% and 18%, respectively.

New worries have surfaced over the last few days. The bond market is worried about inflation and the rise in commodity prices is adding fuel to fire. There is a little bit of a worry that this will dampen the economic recovery.

Commodity prices have been rallying lately, due to the weak dollar and bets that the economic recovery will drive demand for so-called hard assets. But the rise in commodity prices also added to worries over inflation.

In currency trading, the dollar gained versus the euro and the yen.

COMEX gold for August delivery settled at US$954.70 an ounce, unchanged from Tuesday.

European shares advanced, as hopes for a strong economic recovery in China prompted solid gains for metal extractors and oil producers. The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index climbed 1.1% to 212.58, with most of the 15 Stoxx industry sectors in the green. The index rose as high as 215.05 in the session, a level not seen since November.

The UK’s FTSE 100 index rose 0.7% to 4,436.75, the German DAX 30 index gained 1.1% to 5,051.18 and the French CAC-40 index climbed 0.6% to 3,315.27.