Stocks on Wall Street have fallen sharply, led by a broad decline in the technology sector.The Dow Jones Industrial Average is plunging toward the psychologically important 10,000 figure, a level it hasn't seen since November.The drop has been dramatic si
Stocks on Wall Street have fallen sharply, led by a broad decline in the technology sector.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is plunging toward the psychologically important 10,000 figure, a level it hasn’t seen since November.
The drop has been dramatic since it reached a new 15-month closing high for the year on January 19.
American Express was the worst performer, off 3.9%, while Caterpillar was down more than 3%, as were Hewlett-Packard and 3M.
Procter & Gamble was the Dow's lone gainer, climbing 2% after strong quarterly earnings.
A weak outlook from Qualcomm dragged on the semiconductor and the broader technology sectors. Motorola also gave a weak outlook, adding to the selling pressure.
The S&P500 index dropped 1.2% to 1084.52, with its technology sector leading the declines. The Nasdaq Composite tumbled 1.9%, to 2179.00, weighed down by a 3.6% slide in Apple.
European stock markets ended lower amid rising concerns about the fiscal problems bedevilling Greece and Portugal.
The Portuguese government reported a higher-than-expected budget deficit of 9.3% of GDP while in Greece, where the deficit has soared to 12.7% of GDP, the cost to insure sovereign debt against default hit a record high.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 Index closed down 0.8% at 247.31, with banks weighing heavily on the index.
The UK’s FTSE 100 Index closed 1.1% lower at 5217.47, while France's CAC-40 index was off 1.2% at 3759.80. Germany's DAX was down 0.4% to finish at 5643.20.
Asian sharemarkets ended higher. I
n Tokyo, the Nikkei Stock Average of 225 companies gained 1.6% to 10414.29, snapping a four-day losing streak. Toyota Motor remained under pressure, down 3.9%, on continuing concerns following its recall of vehicles and the halt of sales of eight models in the US.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index rose 1.6% to 20356.37, breaking a six-session losing streak. In Shanghai, the composite index climbing 0.3% to 2994.14, Seoul's Kospi rose 1% to 1642.43, and the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.6% to 4673.26 in Sydney,
Commodities: Oil, gold up
Crude-oil futures rose slightly though the fundamentals of the oil market remain weak.
The March contract for light, sweet crude was 52USc higher at $US74.19 a barrel in New York, while the March Brent contract on London's ICE futures exchange was up 54USc at $US72.78 a barrel.
Weekly oil-inventories data released by the US Department of Energy were mostly interpreted as bearish. The huge draw of 3.9 million barrels in crude oil stocks failed to impress the market.
Gold gave up some of its early-morning gains. The February contract was up $US2.80, or 0.3%, at $US1087.30 an ounce in New York.
Currencies: Dollar up, euro down
The euro tumbled below $US1.40 amid mounting concerns about sovereign debt in some zone member countries.
Investor sentiment further deteriorated after Standard & Poor's said it no longer classified the UK among the most stable and low-risk banking systems globally.
The euro was at $US1.3973 from $US1.4022 late on Wednesday and weakened to ¥125.41 from ¥126.27.
The dollar moved to ¥89.75 from ¥90.05 while the pound moved to $US1.6143 from $US1.6166.
