LONDON (ShareCast) - Wall Street has taken a bashing in early trading, with traders saying the recent upward spurt by blue chips has run out of steam.
The Dow is 154 points lower at 10,272. Nasdaq (NASDAQ: news)
is down 47 at 2,145 while the S&P 500 is 19 lower at 1,090.
AOL (NYSE: TWX - news) plans to cut one-third of its workforce, 2,300 staff, after its spin-off from Time Warner is completed. Tim Armstrong, AOL's chief executive, also told his staff Thursday that he will not take a bonus for 2009.
Chip makers have given back much of yesterday's gains after a gloomy report on semiconductor demand. AMD (NYSE: AMD - news) , Micron, National Semiconductor (NYSE: NSM - news) and Intel (NASDAQ: INTC - news) are the four worst perfomers on the S&P 500.
Economic news includes new weekly dole claimants, which came in almost bang in line with forecasts at 505,000 for the week ended 4 November (Frankfurt: A0Z24E - news) .
The index of US leading indicators rose for a seventh consecutive month in October. The Conference Board's gauge of the outlook for the next three to six months rose 0.3%, less than forecast, after rising 1% in September.
JPMorgan Chase buying out the outstanding of the half of UK broker Cazenove for about $1.67bn.
Birds Eye Foods, the largest frozen-vegetable company in the US, is expected to be acquired for more than $1.3bn by Pinnacle Brands, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Wells Fargo has agreed to reimburse investors who bought $1.4 billion in auction-rate securities that were frozen in the credit crunch early last year, including $700m held by California residents, reports the LA Times.
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