NEW YORK — US stocks were on track for their biggest loss in more than six weeks Monday as investors worried about signs of weakness in China's economy. Worries about slowing growth in the world's second-largest economy pushed the down the price of oil, weighing on energy stocks.
KEEPING SCORE: The Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 17 points, or 0.9 percent, to 1,992 as of 12:19 p.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 79 points, or 0.8 percent, to 17,199. The Nasdaq composite dropped 63 points, or 1.4 percent, to 4,516.
CHINA WORRIES: Investors are nervous about China following a run of soft economic data that suggests growth in the world's second-largest economy is slowing. On Tuesday, HSBC publishes its closely watched gauge of Chinese manufacturing activity.
ENERGY: Benchmark crude oil fell $1.09 to $90.56 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Energy stocks fell 1.5 percent, putting them among the biggest decliners in the 10 industry groups that make up the S&P 500 index.
HOME SALES FALL: Stocks stayed lower after a report released at 10 a.m. Eastern time showed that fewer Americans bought homes in August as investors retreated from real estate and first-time buyers remained scarce. The National Association of Realtors says sales of existing homes fell 1.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.05 million. That followed four months of gains. August sales fell from a July rate of 5.14 million, a figure that was revised slightly downward.
Home building stocks fell after the report. Hovnanian fell 12 cents, or 2.8 percent, to $3.83.
THE QUOTE: While the economy will continue to strengthen, the pace of improvement will likely remain muted, said Scott Wren, an equity strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors.
"There's a lot of hype out there right now that the economy is going to consistently accelerate at a better rate of growth," said Wren. "I'm still in the camp of modest growth and modest inflation, that's not going to change anytime soon."
SMALL STOCKS SLIDE: Smaller companies were also among the biggest decliners. The Russell 2000, an index which tracks small-company stocks, fell 1.5 percent, more than other indexes. The Russell has dropped 2.9 percent so far this year, compared to gains of 7.9 percent for the S&P 500 and 3.8 percent for the Dow.
M&A CHEMISTRY: St. Louis-based chemical firm Sigma-Aldrich surged $34.12, or 33 percent, to $136.50 after agreeing to be acquired by Merck, a German drug company. Merck is paying $140 a share from Sigma-Aldrich, a premium of 37 percent over Friday's closing price.
EUROPEAN MARKETS: Germany's DAX fell 0.5 percent to 9,749 and France's CAC-40 fell 0.4 percent to 4,442. Britain's FTSE 100 lost 0.9 percent to 6,773.
CURRENCIES: The Japanese yen has been trading at six-year lows against the dollar in anticipation that the U.S. Federal Reserve will raise interest rates next year while the Bank of Japan will maintain an easy monetary policy. On Monday the dollar edged down to 108.92 yen. The euro was little changed at 1.2828.
BONDS: U.S. government bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year government bond fell to 2.55 percent from 2.58 percent.
SILVER'S FALL FROM GRACE: Silver continued its recent descent, falling to its lowest level since the summer of 2010. The price of an ounce of silver fell 0.6 percent to $17.75. Precious metals, including gold, have been pressured by the recent strength of the dollar, low global inflation and rising stock markets. Gold is trading at its lowest price since the start of the year, $1,216 an ounce.
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