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US market indices go down

23 June 2009 08:46 (UTC +04:00)

Baku - APA-Economics. A surprisingly bleak forecast for the world economy sent stocks tumbling to their lowest level this month.
Major stock indexes dropped by more than 2 percent Monday, sending the Dow Jones industrial average down 201 points, after the World Bank estimated the global economy will shrink 2.9 percent in 2009. It previously predicted a 1.7 percent contraction.
According to preliminary calculations, the Dow fell 200.72, or 2.4 percent, to 8,339.01.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 28.19, or 3.1 percent, to 893.04, erasing the index’s advance for the year. The Nasdaq composite index fell 61.28, or 3.4 percent, to 1,766.19.
Last week, the Dow fell 3 percent, the S&P 500 index dropped 2.6 percent and the Nasdaq composite lost 1.7 percent. As of Friday, the Dow was up about 30 percent from the 12-year lows it reached in early March, but it is on track to finish down for five of the last six trading days.
Bond prices jumped Monday, pushing yields down, as the drop in stocks drove demand for the safety of government debt. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note sank to 3.70 percent from 3.78 percent late Friday.
The Fed has been buying Treasurys and other kinds of debt with the hope of keeping borrowing rates low at the same time the government has been issuing record amounts of debt. The Treasury Department is planning to auction another $104 billion in debt this week.
Benchmark crude for August delivery fell $2.52 to settle at $67.50 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold prices also slid.
Shares of companies that produce commodities dropped. Oil company Chevron Corp. fell $2.30, or 3.4 percent, to $65.76, while aluminum producer Alcoa Inc. fell 98 cents, or 8.9 percent, to $10.02.
The dollar was mostly higher against other major currencies.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 19.91, or 3.9 percent, to 492.81.
About six stocks fell for every stock that rose on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 1.4 billion shares, down from 2.1 billion Friday. Trading was heavy Friday because of expiration of options contracts.
Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average rose 0.4 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 2.6 percent, Germany’s DAX index fell 3 percent, and France’s CAC-40 fell 3 percent.