Hope of Wall Street’s rebound from an extended losing streak are dashed as the U.S. stock market looks to close another week in the red. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen below 12,000 and NASDAQ has returned all its gains from the start of the year. Financial stocks have been leading today’s drop as insurance giant Travelers (TRV) said it could be facing $1 billion in losses from recent natural disasters. The company also said it would be forced to slow its stock buyback program. Disappointing economic data from China are also doing little to ease investor concerns. Stocks in China experienced a sell-off too as export data showed that the countries economic growth could be slowing. Compounding that China’s central bank is still focused on tightening the nation’s money supply with impending interest rate hikes. Energy stocks are also down today as Saudi Arabia announced it production by 10 million barrels a day next month, dropping oil prices to under $100 a barrel. The U.S. dollar strengthened today, pushing down commodities like gold and silver.
Major U.S. Stock Indices
DJIA: 12,000.58 (-1.02 percent)
S&P 500: 1,274.92 (-1.09 percent)
NASDAQ: 2,655.26 (-1.10 percent)
Russell 2000: 780.88 (1.48 percent)
In other news:
- More bad news from Toyota (TM) as the auto giant says it expects a 31 percent drop in profits. [NY Times]
- Pandora, which like Groupon is not yet profitable, is raising the asking price for its IPO. [WSJ]
- News broke yesterday that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was considering the World Bank presidency. Those rumors are being denied. [WaPo]
- Stocks are falling, so are dividend payers better for investors than bonds? BlackRock’s (BLK) CEO thinks so. [CNBC]
- An eccentric entrepreneur behind a hot tech startup? You don’t say… In this case, it’s Groupon (GRPN) co-founder and chairman, Eric Lefkofsky. [Fortune]
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