The New York Stock Exchange ended Thursday with a sharp drop. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost 2.09% and the Nasdaq up 3.06%. Investor nervousness about possible corrections and the worries about the unemployment and the future of the economy broke their nerves prompting the sell-off.
The Dow closed down 203.00 points at 9509.28 NYSE volume totaled 1.6 billion shares. The S&P 500 fell 2.58% or 27.23 points, up to 1029.85 points.
What went wrong. Wells Fargo's Chief Market Strategyst Alfred Goldman expalins in his Daily Stock Market News and Commentary.
"A closely-watched index of September manufacturing showed an unexpected decline from the month before. Worries about the job market grew after initial jobless claims came in higher than expected.
Automakers reported dismal September sales after the clunkers program ended. Ford sales were even weaker than forecast and the shares fell 3.3% to 6.97. Penske Automotive lost 16% to 16.12 after backing out of a deal to buy Saturn from GM. General Motors said it will kill the Saturn brand. Bank of America was down 4.2% to 16.21 as chief executive Ken Lewis announced his retirement. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s comments on the dollar got a lot of attention. Bernanke told a House committee that the dollar could be at risk if the U.S. doesn’t get its fiscal house in order."
While the manufacutring and unemployment numbers did not meet the investor expectations last and current weeks, the Wall Street seemed to overlook that both investment for construction and consumer spending increased during August, according to a report issued Thursday by the Commerce Department.
Last week some may have still cherished some hopes that the S&P 500 Index will still finish the decade on a positive note. After today's sharp fall those hopes probably are dashed. According to the numbers from this afternoon, S&P 500 must still rise 39 percent to finish the decade on a positive level. Otherwise it may be one of the biggest losers of the past ten years.
Written by Armen Hareyan
HULIQ publisher
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