Wall Street languishes on grim corporate, economic news
NEW YORK - US SHARES sputtered at the opening on Thursday after heavy losses in the prior session, as traders digested a weak earnings report from JPMorgan Chase and more weak economic data.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 16.64 points (0.20 per cent) to 8,183.50 in the first trades after six consecutive losses for the blue-chip index.
The Nasdaq fell a fractional 0.26 points (0.02 per cent) to 1,489.38 and the Standard & Poor's 500 index dipped 2.63 points (0.31 per cent) to 839.99.
Markets digested news of more difficulties for key US firms including a 64 per cent drop in profits at JPMorgan Chase, the medical leave taken by Apple chief executive Steve Jobs and 4,000 additional job cuts at Motorola.
On the economic front, US producer prices fell 1.9 per cent, highlighting concerns about the weak economy and potential deflation, and the number of weekly jobless claims rose 11.5 per cent to 524,000.
'The hits keep coming for the stock market with another volley of discouraging news creating questions about the timing of an economic recovery,' said Mr Patrick O'Hare at Briefing.com.
But Mr O'Hare said that he saw a certain resilience in the market that 'suggests there is a sense the market has been deemed oversold on a short-term basis, having dropped nearly 10 per cent since its close on Jan 2'. -- AFP
