Stocks Fall After Troubling Economic Data - Download Free Phim, Nhac, Phan Mem, Karaoke

conmeo · #1 (**permalink**) 11-06-2008, 12:32 PM

Stocks slumped on Thursday, extending their losses to a second day, amid a poor outlook for the retail and automobile industries and worries about the state of the labor market.

At about 1 p.m. the Dow Jones industrial average was down about 400 points or 4.4 percent, and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index had declined 4.6 percent. The Dow fell 486 points on Wednesday.

Before the markets opened, retailers reported that their October sales slowed as Americans pulled back on spending. The holiday shopping season could be the worst in years, analysts said, as consumers buckle down to ride out a looming recession.

The job situation may be worsening, as well. The Labor Department is expected to report on Friday that employers cut hundreds of thousands more jobs last month, data that could prompt a sell-off in stocks. The agency said on Thursday that new claims for unemployment benefits declined by 4,000 last week, to 481,000; readings above 400,000 are considered recessionary. The agency also said that worker productivity grew at an annual pace of 1.1 percent in the third quarter, down from a 3.6 percent growth rate in the second quarter.

The declines on Wall Street came despite sharp reductions in foreign interest rates by central banks seeking to further ease the credit crisis. The Bank of England lowered its benchmark rate by 1.5 percent, more than analysts had expected, and the European Central Bank cut rates by half a percentage point.

The moves did little to reassure European investors, who sent stocks down more sharply than their American counterparts. Stocks in London fell 5.7 percent; Paris stocks were down 6.4 percent. The benchmark index in Germany tumbled more than 7 percent.

In Asia, where stock markets had several sessions of modest rises before the United States presidential election, the Nikkei 225, Hang Seng and Kospi indexes all dropped more than 6.5 percent, wiping out most of a recent rally.

Analysts in Asia said Thursday’s declines were not a huge surprise. “Some fizzle was to be expected,” said Stephen Davies, chief executive of Javelin Wealth Management in Singapore, who said the pre-election rally now looked more like a blip, as investors turned their attention to the difficulties still facing the global economy.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 share average closed 6.5 percent lower after weak United States economic news on Wednesday spelled tough times for Japanese exporters. Shares of Canon and Sony dropped more than 12 percent on Thursday.

After the Nikkei closed, Toyota Motor said that it had slashed its annual profit forecast by more than half. Toyota said it now expected net profit of 550 billion yen, or $5.5 billion, for the fiscal year ending March 31, down 56 percent from its earlier forecast.

Elsewhere, the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong fell 6.4 percent. Shares in Cathay Pacific led the declines, plunging 13 percent after the airline warned of unrealized fuel hedging losses of $360 million, in October.

Investors in Australia joined the retreat with the S.& P./ASX 200 index down 4.3 percent. The Kospi index in South Korea dropped 7.5 percent.

The interest rates are the latest in a wave around the world as policy makers try to prop up their economies and bolster confidence in the financial system.

“After the elections in the U.S., markets are now turning their focus on the issues of economies sliding into a recession again and getting back into the reality of tougher times ahead,” said Richard Hunter, a fund manager at Hargreaves Lansdown in London.

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