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Master Sergeant
Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 152
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Anxious Over Jobs and Europe, Wall St. Falls for Week
Stocks dipped on Wall Street after sinking in Europe on Friday as the Group of 20 nations ended a summit meeting with seemingly little headway in resolving the debt crisis in the euro zone. The declines pushed equities markets to cumulative losses for the week, with indexes in the United States shedding about 2 percent or more. The latest jolt came from the meeting in France of G-20 leaders, who wrapped up their talks without commitments of money to prop up Europe’s bailout fund. And in Greece, Prime Minister George A. Papandreou survived a confidence vote early Saturday local time, after calling off a referendum on Greece’s new rescue deal with its international creditors. While the debt crisis in Europe has unsettled global financial markets for more than a year, analysts were also watching on Friday for any insight the monthly jobs report in the United States could provide on the pace of the nation’s recovery. But that report from the Labor Department did little to improve sentiment, showing that employers in the United States added 80,000 jobs in October, slightly below economists’ forecasts, compared with 158,000 jobs in September. The Euro Stoxx 50 index, a barometer of euro zone blue chips, closed down 2.4 percent. The German DAX was down 2.7 percent <a href="http://www.ecigs-store.com/supertanker-002-p-23.html"><strong>smokeless cigarettes</strong></a> and the CAC 40 in Paris was down 2.25 percent. The FTSE 100 index in London ended the day 0.3 percent lower. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was down about 0.6 percent, or 7.92 points, at 1,253.23. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.5 percent to 11,983.24 and the Nasdaq composite index was down 0.4 percent to 2,686.15. Financial stocks fell 1.3 percent in the United States, among the worst performing sectors. Interest rates were lower. The Treasury’s benchmark 10-year note rose 10/32, to 100 25/32, and the yield fell to 2.04 percent from 2.07 percent late Thursday. As the euro zone crisis has developed, the markets have sometimes swung erratically, building gains one day and wiping them out the next. The three main Wall Street indexes finished last week up more than 3 percent. But that gain started to be tested on Monday, then fell further when Greece said it would put the terms of its planned bailout to a public vote. Stocks managed to squeeze out some gains on Wednesday and Thursday, but fell flat on Friday. In addition, a bankruptcy filing this week by MF Global in the United States raised concerns <a href="http://www.womenfashionbag.com/lv-nomade-c-20_35.html"><strong>lewis vuitton</strong></a> about the exposure of financial institutions in the United States to the debt problems in Europe. And borrowing costs in Europe for the most troubled economies have been rising again to worrying levels. Guy LeBas, the chief fixed-income strategist for Janney Montgomery Scott, said investors were “watching their backs” for other troubled financial institutions. One move that emerged from the G-20 meeting, however, was Italy’s decision to have the International Monetary Fund monitor its belt-tightening efforts. Italian bonds, among the most pressured, have hit yield levels that signify the most expensive 10-year money the country has borrowed since switching to the euro. The rising borrowing costs make it even more difficult to reduce the overall debt load. On Friday, the yield on 10-year bonds <a href="http://www.womenfashionbag.com/miuimiu-c-14.html"><strong>handbag</strong></a> in Italy climbed again to 6.35 percent, up from 6.18 percent. “Looking ahead, while Greece is front and center now, the core problem for the euro zone is how to mitigate contagion to Italy,” said currency strategists from Brown Brothers Harriman in a research note. The euro was at 1.3770 on Friday, down from 1.3812 on Thursday. In addition to Europe and the economic data in the United States, investors have also been scrutinizing corporate reports, which in recent weeks have somewhat steadied the American market. On Friday, all of the major sectors in the broader market were lower, but some companies seemed resistant to the declines. Starbucks, for example, posted fiscal fourth quarter earnings that beat estimates, and was the most widely traded stock of the consumer companies, propping them up as a group, which fell less than 1 percent. Its shares rose 6.7 percent, to 44.19. Genworth Financial was one of the few to rise in the financial sector. Its shares rose 7.19, more than 16 percent, after it reported strong third-quarter earnings.
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