NEW YORK (AFP) – US stocks fell sharply by midday on Friday, giving up early gains from a better-than-expected jobs report to continue a steep sell-off driven by global economic worries.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average had dropped 215.51 points (1.9 percent) to 11,168.17 by 1600 GMT.
The broader S&P 500 was down 30.41 points (2.5 percent) to 1,198.67, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slumped 86.22 points (3.4 percent) to stand at 2,470.17.
The losses on Wall Street came as Europe's major stock exchanges also fell into the red. Both London and Frankfurt closed the day with losses of more than 2.7 percent.
US stocks initially rallied, then seesawed wildly and finally fell into negative territory after the US Labor Department said the country's economy generated 117,000 jobs in July.
The improvement cut the United States's official unemployment rate down a notch to 9.1 percent.
Economists had forecast only a net 84,000 jobs generated.
"The employment report turned out better than expected and certainly better than feared," said Patrick O'Hare, an analyst with Briefing.com.
However, he also cautioned: "The fact remains that the pace of job growth is still not sufficient enough to produce a meaningful change in the unemployment rate."
Financial stocks were battered by fears of contagion from Europe's debt crisis and an economic slowdown in the United States.
Citigroup, the global financial-services giant, plunged 7.7 percent. Bank of America dived 7.9 percent and Goldman Sachs dropped 2.3 percent.
Industrial economy bellwether Caterpillar was down 2.9 percent.
Kraft Foods rallied 1.8 percent. The US food giant announced plans on Thursday to split itself into two companies, a move that was welcomed by many analysts and investors.
Investors had been closely watching the US jobs report for signs of whether the US economy might be slipping back into recession, especially after a dramatic sell-off hammered global markets on Thursday.
The Dow fell more than 500 points -- its sharpest one-day drop since the 2008 financial crisis -- amid fears Europe's debt crisis is mounting and that the US economy is slowing.
Bond prices fell slightly after surging in recent days. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 2.48 percent from 2.46 percent late Thursday, while that on the 30-year bond climbed to 3.74 percent from 3.72 percent.
Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.
No comments:
Post a Comment