Bourse

Home page

Bourse

US markets decline on unemployment concern

30 January 2009 08:12 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Vahab Rzayev - APA-Economics. Caution returned to Wall Street Thursday as unemployment claims reached a record high and new home sales hit a record low â€” two glaring signs that the economy is still in a deep slump. The major stock indexes gave back all of Wednesdayâ€™s gains, and then some, AP reports.
According to preliminary calculations, the Dow industrials fell 226.44, or 2.70 percent, to 8,149.01.
Broader stock indicators also sank. The S&P 500 index fell 28.95, or 3.31 percent, to 845.14, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 50.50, or 3.24 percent, to 1,507.84.
The S&P was coming off its first four-day winning streak since last November.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 19.78, or 4.18 percent, to 453.24.
The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices rose.
Light, sweet crude fell 72 cents to finish at $41.44 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Japanâ€™s Nikkei stock average rose 1.79 percent. Britainâ€™s FTSE 100 fell 2.45 percent, Germanyâ€™s DAX index fell 2.01 percent, and Franceâ€™s CAC-40 fell 2.15 percent.