A Down Week for Wall Street
Pessimism over the economy sent stocks lower Friday as investors registered their disappointment over the government’s latest job report and as oil topped $53 a barrel.
The Labor Department said a net 96,000 new jobs were created in September, far less than the 150,000 Wall Street expected. Treasury bond yields plunged as the weak employment report revived talk that the Federal Reserve might slow the pace of interest rate hikes.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year T-note sank to 4.13%, down from 4.24% on Thursday and 4.19% a week ago.
The dollar slumped on the job news. Gold, viewed as an alternative to the buck, jumped $5.10 to $423.10 an ounce, a six-month high, in New York.
On Wall Street, hopes for a fourth-quarter market rally dimmed as oil climbed 64 cents to a record $53.31 a barrel.
“The jobs figure was clearly disappointing, and energy prices are still hanging in there,” said Scott Brown, economist at Raymond James. “It’s not a disaster, but the jobs number just isn’t good enough. The markets are taking it fairly well, considering, but it doesn’t help.”
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 70.20 points, or 0.7%, to 10,055.20.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index was down 8.51 points, or 0.8%, at 1,122.14, and the Nasdaq composite dropped 28.55 points, or 1.5%, to 1,919.97.
Losers topped winners by 2 to 1 on Nasdaq, but losers had only a narrow edge on the New York Stock Exchange.
For the week, the Dow dropped 1.4%, the S&P; fell 0.8%, and Nasdaq was down 1.1%.
This week marked the two-year anniversary of the bull market. The bear market that began in 2000 bottomed on Oct. 9, 2002. Since then, the Dow is up 38%, the S&P; 500 is up 44.4%, and Nasdaq is up 72.3%.
Among Friday’s highlights:
* General Electric and Alcoa slipped after earnings met but did not exceed expectations. GE dropped 21 cents to $33.74; Alcoa lost 68 cents to $33.40.
* Advanced Micro Devices fell 61 cents, or 4.3%, to $13.50, also after reporting earnings that just met expectations. Other semiconductor shares retreated with it: Intel declined 69 cents to $20.55, Texas Instruments fell 74 cents to $22.05, and Broadcom dropped $1.20 to $28.25. One analyst attributed the pullback to “trepidation” that Intel, which announces third-quarter results Tuesday, will provide a disappointing forecast.
* William Lyon Homes plunged $4.26, or 5.2%, to $77. The Newport Beach-based builder said after the market closed Thursday that new-home orders fell 33% in the third quarter.
* Drug stocks fell further, amid continued concerns that the industry would face greater scrutiny in the wake of Merck’s decision last week to pull its arthritis drug Vioxx off the market. Merck fell 64 cents to $30.34, Pfizer lost 19 cents to $29.80, and Eli Lilly slid 48 cents to $59.08.
Chiron, a maker of flu vaccine that saw its British plant shut by regulators this week, sank 90 cents to $35.63.
* Real estate investment trust shares benefited from falling interest rates. Vornado Realty gained 68 cents to $64.73, and SL Green Realty added 55 cents to $53.32.
* Gold stocks rose with the metal’s price. Placer Dome jumped 79 cents to $20.71, and Glamis Gold was up 70 cents to $19.85.
