WORLD> America
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WORLD> America
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Wall Street ends turbulent week sharply lower
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-11-15 09:25 The Dow fell 337.93, or 3.82 percent, to 8,497.31, at its lows of the day. The Dow fell more than 300 in early trading, recovered to a slim advance and then turned sharply lower at the end of the day as hedge funds cashed out. Fund investors had a Nov. 15 deadline for withdrawing their money, which forced the funds in turn to sell stocks.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 38.00, or 4.17 percent, to 873.29, and the Nasdaq stumbled 79.85, or 5.00 percent, to 1,516.85. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 34.71, or 7.07 percent, to 456.52. Declining issues outpaced advancers by about 4 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where consolidated volume came to 5.73 billion shares, compared with 7.67 billion on Thursday. For the week, the Dow lost 4.99 percent, the S&P fell 6.20 percent and the Nasdaq tumbled 7.92 percent. The major indexes have fallen dramatically since their highs of October 2007 as the housing and credit crises have taken their toll on the economy. The Dow is down 40 percent from its closing record of 14,164.53, while the S&P 500 is off 44.2 percent from its record close of 1,565.15. The Nasdaq is off 46.9 percent from its then 7 1/12-year high of 2,859.12. The Dow's surge Thursday was the third-largest single-session point gain on record, following the 889-point rise on Oct. 28 and the 936-point surge on Oct. 13. The rally came after three days of selling that wiped out about $1 trillion in shareholder value. Wall Street's violent swings in recent weeks are part of the market's ongoing "bottoming" process, analysts say, in which the market retests the lows hit last month. The market is expected to remain volatile, as evidenced by past recoveries from a bear market. Randy Frederick, director of trading and derivatives at Charles Schwab & Co., said the sell-off could be attributed in part to investors not wanting to hold on to stocks going in to the weekend, particularly ahead of a meeting of Group of 20 international leaders in Washington. The meeting could bring decisions on how to help the troubled global financial system. "Certainly in this market we've had a lot of late Friday sell-offs," he said. "The government has been very insistent on making major announcements on Sunday nights." Bernie McGinn, chief executive of McGinn Investment Management, said the market needs to have a sustained rally for a couple of days to lure buyers back into the market. For the moment, he believes the market will continue to fluctuate based on events like earnings or government reports. "We're in the middle of chaos," he said. "That's what it is, pure and simple." The volatility helped send government bond prices higher as investors looked for safety. The three-month Treasury bill's yield fell to 0.14 percent from 0.20 percent late Thursday, and the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 3.72 percent from 3.85 percent late Thursday. Lower yields indicate higher demand. Meanwhile, the price of a barrel of light, sweet crude fell $1.20 to settle at $57.04 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil has been falling for the same reason as stocks, the fear of a deep global recession. Shares of major retailers fell as the string of disappointing earnings and outlooks continued. JCPenney lost $2.01, or 10.4 percent, to $17.27. Abercrombie & Fitch tumbled $4.65, or 20.7 percent, to a 52-week low of $17.79. The dollar rose against other major currencies. Gold prices also rose. Overseas, Japan's Nikkei closed up 2.72 percent and Hong Kong Hang Seng rose 2.43 percent. In European trading, London's FTSE 100 was up 1.53 percent, Germany's DAX rose 1.31 percent, and France's CAC-40 added 0.98 percent. |
