LONDON (ShareCast) - US stocks are lower in midday trade as investors consider gloomy economic data and comments from Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke.
Bernanke said the US needs to begin efforts to restore "fiscal balance" after huge deficit
spending. He still anticipates the economy will recover later this year, though the recovery will be gradual with unemployment likely to remain high.
The Commerce Department said factory orders rose 0.7% in April, which was short of expectations.
Outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said job cut announcements by US employers totalled 111,182 in May, which is an improvement of 16% from April's 132,590. It was the lowest total since last September.
Another report on private-sector jobs from payroll manager ADP (Paris: FR0010340141 - news) showed a fall of 532,000 jobs in May, compared to the revised decline of 545,000 in April.
Across the markets, the Dow Jones (news) is down 87 points to 8653 with the Nasdaq (NASDAQ: news) slipping 14 points to 1822. The S&P 500 is down 13 points.
US luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL - news) ' chairman and chief executive said he was seeing signs of buyers coming back into the housing market as the company posted a smaller loss in the second quarter.
The company reported a net loss of $83.2m, or $0.52 a diluted share, compared with a net loss of $93.7m, or $0.59 a diluted share in the same quarter the previous year.
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