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US market indices slid but look better

29 March 2009 07:58 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Vahab Rzayev - APA-Economics. The Dow fell 148.38, or 1.9 percent, to 7,776.18.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 16.92, or 2 percent, to 815.94 and the Nasdaq composite index dropped 41.80, or 2.6 percent, to 1,545.20.
Despite the decline, the indexes are still looking much better than they did a month ago:
The Dow is up 17.3 percent in the last three weeks, its best gain since September 1982 and its longest string of advances since May last year. It’s also still up 10 percent for the month; the last time the Dow gained at least 10 percent in a month was in October 2002.
The S&P 500 has soared 20.6 percent over the past 14 trading days, its best run over that length of time since 1938.
For the week, the Dow is up more than 6.8 percent. The S&P 500 is up 6.2 percent and the Nasdaq is up 6 percent.
The Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 index, which reflects nearly all stocks traded in America, ended the week up 6.2 percent. That’s a paper gain of about $600 billion.
Still, the market has a very long way to go before it can be considered to be recovering. The Dow is down 6,388.35, or 45.1 percent, from its record close of 14,164.53 reached Oct. 9, 2007
Citigroup Inc. dropped 19 cents, or 6.8 percent, to $2.62, while JPMorgan Chase & Co. fell $1.70, or 5.8 percent, to $27.40.
The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices fell.
Government bonds fell. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 2.76 percent from 2.74 percent.
Crude oil fell $1.96 to settle at $52.38 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Overseas, Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.7 percent, Germany’s DAX index fell 1.3 percent, and France’s CAC-40 fell 1.8 percent. Japan’s Nikkei stock average fell 0.1 percent.