U.S. Stocks Slide as Retail Sales Slump, Economic Outlooks Temper Sentiment -- FEC

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, [9], 10 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 05:22:07 07/17/12 Tue
Author: Alices birtthday Friday 18/5/2012 Temper Trap (17/07/2012 6:36AM)
Subject:

U.S. Stocks Slide as Retail Sales Slump, Economic Outlooks Temper Sentiment

U.S. Stocks Slide as Retail Sales Slump, Economic Outlooks Temper Sentiment
17/07/2012 6:36AM

--Stocks decline after U.S. retail sales fall unexpectedly

--China's premier warns economic softness may persist

--New York manufacturing index tops views

By Matt Jarzemsky

NEW YORK--Industrial and consumer shares led stocks lower Monday, as U.S. retail sales disappointed and investors braced for a busy week of earnings.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 49.88 points, or 0.4%, to 12727.21, the seventh decline in eight sessions. The retreat followed a 204-point rally by blue chips Friday.

The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index eased 3.14 points, or 0.2%, to 1353.64. The Nasdaq Composite lost 11.53 points, or 0.4%, to 2896.94.

"We're taking a breather from an enormous Friday," said Doug Cote, chief market strategist at ING Investment Management, which oversees $165 billion of assets. "This is a big earnings week. That is what the market is focused on right now."

Citigroup edged up 0.6% after reporting better-than-expected earnings. Gannett rose 2.7% as the USA Today publisher's profit dropped less than forecast.

Companies such as International Business Machines and General Electric are due to report in coming days. Monday, GE shares slipped 0.9% after Morgan Stanley analysts cut their rating on the shares. IBM eased 0.7%.

U.S. retail sales fell for the third straight month in June, the Commerce Department reported, bucking economists' projections for a slight increase and marking the first three-month streak of declines since 2008.

"There is some nervousness in the market over this morning's retail sales report," said Michael Strauss, chief investment strategist at Commonfund in Wilton, Conn., which manages $26 billion of assets.

"On the earnings side, for multinationals that sell in Europe, that part of the picture is going to be a little challenging," Mr. Strauss added.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao warned that a recovery in the country's economic growth isn't yet stable, adding to investors' worries about the health of the world's second-largest economy. Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund trimmed its forecast for global economic growth by 0.1 percentage point to 3.5%.

An index on manufacturing activity in New York rose more than expected this month, according to the New York Federal Reserve Bank's Empire State Manufacturing Survey. A measure of new orders, one component of the index, contracted for the first time since November 2011.

U.S. business inventories rose more than expected in May, the Commerce Department reported, as companies were left holding more goods in warehouses while shoppers trimmed spending.

European markets were mixed, with the Stoxx Europe 600 up 0.2% and Spain's IBEX-35 index down 2% as investors continued to worry about the euro zone's ability to rescue troubled sovereign nations if the need arises.

Asian markets were highlighted by the 1.7% drop in China's Shanghai Composite to a three-and-a-half-year low after Mr. Wen's comments. Australia's S&P ASX 200 rose 0.6%, while Japan was closed for a holiday.

Crude-oil futures rose 1.5% to settle at $88.43. Gold futures ticked down less than 0.1% to finish at $1,591.20 a troy ounce. The dollar fell against the euro and the yen.

In the corporate arena, coal mining company Alpha Natural Resources tumbled 10%, the biggest drop in the S&P 500, after BMO Capital Markets cut its stock-investment rating on the shares.

Facebook fell 8.1% for its fifth straight daily decline, the longest slump in the nearly two months since the company's initial public offering.

Human Genome Sciences gained 4.5% in response to news that GlaxoSmithKline is nearing an agreement to buy the company for as much as $3 billion.

Par Pharmaceutical jumped 37% after agreeing to be acquired by private-equity firm TPG Capital for $1.84 billion.

MasterCard rose 1.7% and Visa advanced 2.5% after the credit-card companies and some large banks settled a long-running lawsuit by agreeing to pay a number of retailers more than $6 billion.

General Motors slid 1.2%. The Wall Street Journal reported that the auto maker expects to report substantial losses in Europe for the rest of the year, citing people familiar with the matter.

Write to Matt Jarzemsky at matthew.jarzemsky@dowjones.com

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 16, 2012 16:36 ET (20:36 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2012 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

Something/Beatles (NT) -- played on Alices birthday (Friday18/5/2012), 05:23:32 07/17/12 Tue