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Wall Street stocks slide as oil drops below $US80 a barrel

Stocks on Wall Street have started the week in bearish mood with energy shares falling as investors moved toward the safety of the dollar and away from commodities.Oil has fallen below $US80 a barrel as the pace of economic growth remains slow, while mone

Nevil Gibson
Tue, 16 Mar 2010

Stocks on Wall Street have started the week in bearish mood with energy shares falling as investors moved toward the safety of the dollar and away from commodities.

Oil has fallen below $US80 a barrel as the pace of economic growth remains slow, while monetary tightening in China and residual fears of sovereign debt in Europe also weigh on sentiment.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 14 points, or 0.1%, to 10,610 in mid-afternoon trading. The Dow's worst performers include some of its most economically sensitive components, led by Caterpillar, which dropped 2.5%, and Boeing, which fell 1.3%.

Exxon Mobil fell 1.2% and Chevron dropped 0.9%. Offsetting some of the declines, Wal-Mart Stores jumped 2.7% after Citigroup upgraded its investment rating to buy from hold.

The Nasdaq Composite is down 0.6% to 2354, weighed down by a 3.7% drop in Google, which appears increasingly likely to shut its Chinese-language search engine.

The S&P 500-stock index has slipped 0.3% to 1146, with all but two of its sectors in the red. Energy and financials led the drop, with only consumer staples and telecommunications stocks ekeing out small gains.

Other markets

European stocks edged lower ahead of US Federal Reserve and Bank Of Japan rate-setting meetings later this week.

However, equity markets were largely stable after the release of euro-zone jobless data, which showed employment falling for the sixth straight quarter.

The Stoxx Europe 600 basic resources sub-sector fell 1.9% to 512.8, with miners Xstrata and Kazakhmys trading 2.6% and 1.8% lower, respectively.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index was down 0.3% at 257.7. London's FTSE 100 was down 0.1% at 5619.2, Frankfurt's DAX was flat at 5944.3 and Paris's CAC-40 was 0.2% lower at 3919.9.

Major Asian markets ended mostly lower, with shares in China and Hong Kong weighed down by lingering worries over fresh monetary tightening measures from Beijing.

Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock average ended flat at 10,751.98 after seesawing between gains and losses, China's Shanghai Composite dropped 1.2% to 2976.94 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gave up 0.6% to 21,079.10.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.7% 4784.09, South Korea's Kospi lost 0.8% to 1649.50 and Taiwan's Taiex shed 1.5% to 7634.92, while India's Sensex was flat.

Commodities: Oil down, gold up

Crude futures moved below $US80 a barrel for the first time since March 4. Light, sweet crude for April delivery traded $US1.59, or 2%, lower at $US79.65 a barrel in New York. Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange traded $US1.53, or 1.9%, lower at $US77.86 a barrel.

Gold futures were slightly higher. April gold was up $US3.30, or 0.3%, at $US1105 an ounce in New York.

Currencies: Dollar up, euro down

The US dollar extended its gains against the euro, with early losses in US stocks helping push the common currency below the $US1.3700 mark.

The euro is under pressure ahead of a meeting of European Union finance ministers that could provide more clarity about a bailout package for Greece.

The euro was at $US1.3663 from $US1.3762 late on Friday. The euro was at ¥123.67 from ¥124.51. The dollar was at ¥90.53 from ¥90.47, while the pound fell to $US1.5047 from $US1.5184.

Nevil Gibson
Tue, 16 Mar 2010
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Wall Street stocks slide as oil drops below $US80 a barrel
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