Stocks on Wall Street plunged at the end of the session after wavering between gains and losses.US home sales topped expectations but these were more than offset by renewed recession fears in Europe. and worse than expected US jobless claims.At the c
Stocks on Wall Street plunged at the end of the session after wavering between gains and losses.
US home sales topped expectations but these were more than offset by renewed recession fears in Europe. and worse than expected US jobless claims.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 79.09 points at 10,660.22, after earlier having been down as much as 94 points and up as much as 23 points.
Hewlett-Packard climbed 2.2%, Alcoa gained 1.9% and Walt Disney was down 1.6%.
The S&P 500 index shed 0.3% to 1124.84 and the Nasdaq Composite plunged 0.8% to 2327.08.
Other markets: Europe down, Asia mixed
European shares slumped as Ireland posted a surprise decline in second-quarter gross domestic product, and surveys raised concerns about economic strength in Europe.
Germany's private sector expanded at a much slower pace this month, and euro-zone purchasing managers' index data suggested the area's economy is slowing more rapidly than had been forecast.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index edged lower to end at 261.07. The UK's FTSE 100 closed down 0.1% at 5547.08, Germany's DAX fell 0.4% to 6184.71 and France's CAC-40 closed 0.7% lower at 3710.61.
Asian shares ended mixed. Trading activity was modest as markets in Japan, Korea, China and Hong Kong were shut for holidays.
Australian miners rose on stronger metals prices. The S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.2% at 4633.65, Taiwan's Taiex rose 0.1% to 8202.54 and Singapore's Straits Times fell 0.4% to 3083.13. India's Sensex was down 0.4% at 19,861.01.
Commodities: Oil, gold up
Crude-oil prices rebounded, helped by higher fuel product prices after a big refinery shutdown.
The futures contract for light, sweet crude oil for November delivery was up 44USc, or 0.6%, at $US75.15 in New York after falling as low as $US73.58. Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange rose 17USc to $US78.12 a barrel.
Gold set another record, as investors bet that prices will continue to rise amid an uncertain economic recovery and the chance of further easing of US monetary policy.
The most actively traded gold contract, for December delivery, rose $US4.20, or 0.3%, to $US1,296.30 an ounce in New York.
The contract has closed at a record in six of the past eight sessions, buoyed by speculation that the US Federal Reserve will flood the market with cash to boost the sagging economic recovery.
Currencies: Euro down, pound up
The euro weakened against the dollar after Portugal's opposition party said it would refuse to hammer out an early belt-tightening budget. This added to other poor economic data in Europe.
The euro was at $US1.3341, compared with $US1.3393 late on Wednesday. The dollar was at ¥84.38 from ¥84.55.
The euro moved to ¥112.55 from ¥113.22. The UK pound strengthened to $US1.5717 from $US1.5668. The dollar weakened to 0.9855 Swiss francs from 0.9866 francs, after touching 0.9807.
