Thursday November 19, 07:32 PM
US STOCKS-Wall St drops as recovery fears curb risk appetite
By Ellis Mnyandu
NEW YORK, Nov 19 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks slid on Thursday
as a brokerage's bearish view of the semiconductor industry hit
technology shares and a key economic report raised concerns
about the recovery, curbing the
appetite for riskier assets.
The U.S. dollar's gain was another headwind for stocks as
it pressured prices of natural resources like crude oil and
gold, pushing down shares of companies such as Alcoa (NYSE: AA - news) and
U.S. Steel Corp.
The S&P materials index shed 2.1 percent.
Bank of America (NYSE: IKJ - news) -Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER - news) cut its 2010 growth outlook
for the semiconductor industry, and downgraded 10 stocks,
including Intel Corp (NASDAQ: INTC - news) , Texas Instruments Inc (NYSE: TXN - news)
and Marvell Technology Corp. For details, see
Dow component Intel fell 4.7 percent to $19.18, and the
Philadelphia Semiconductor index dropped 3.6 percent.
The Conference Board's index of U.S. leading economic
indicators, a gauge of the U.S. economy's
prospects, rose 0.3 percent to 103.8, the highest since
September 2007. But the increase fell short of Wall Street's
expectation for a 0.5 percent rise.
'There's this feeling that the economy has lost momentum
from the third quarter,' said Bruce Zaro, chief technical
strategist at Delta Global Advisors in Boston. 'The market
gained traction to the downside when the disappointing economic
indicators came out.'
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 136.72 points,
or 1.31 percent, to 10,289.59. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 19.27 points, or 1.74 percent, to 1,090.53. The
Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 43.85 points, or 2.00
percent, to 2,149.29.
The sell-off was broad-based, with all but three of the
Dow's 30 stocks lower. Among other hard-hit sectors were
financials, industrials and consumer discretionaries.
An S&P index of energy shares slid 2.5 percent as
U.S. crude futures fell $2.18, or 2.7 percent, to $77.40 a
barrel. The rising greenback hurt other commodities, and
Alcoa's stock lost 4.3 percent to $13.17.
Health insurance stocks fell a day after U.S. Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid released an $849 billion healthcare
reform bill that analysts said would extend coverage to tens of
millions of the uninsured.
Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS - news) said in a note the bill may cause problems
for managed-care companies regarding profit margin regulation.
The Morgan Stanley Healthcare Payor index fell 2.6
percent.
Even so, the benchmark S&P 500 is up 61.6 percent from its
12-year closing low of March 9.
(Reporting by Ellis Mnyandu; Editing by Jan Paschal)
============================================================== To access running updates on what's moving U.S. stocks double click on ============================================================== For other U.S. market data and news, click on codes in brackets: U.S. Equities speed guide........................ S&P 500 index ........................................ Dow Jones industrial average.......................... Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQ: news) index............................... Nasdaq 100 (NASDAQ: news) ............................................ Russell 2000 small cap................................ S&P major sectors.............................. NYSE most active..................................... Nasdaq most active................................... Top NYSE pct gainers................................. Top NYSE pct losers.................................. Top Nasdaq pct gainers............................... Top Nasdaq pct losers................................ 52 week highs: NYSE............... Nasdaq.............. 52 week lows: NYSE............... Nasdaq.............. Main global stock indexes and market reports: FTSE Eurotop 300 ..... European report ....... Nikkei 225 (news) ............. Tokyo report............ FTSE 100............... London report........... Xetra DAX............. Frankfurt market stories CAC-40................. Paris market stories... World Indices..................................... Reuters survey of world bourse outlook......... U.S. IPO (IPOA.NX - news) diary........................................ U.S. Asset Allocation Table....................... More Reuters News on equities at a glance: Equities ............ US company news......... Key (NYSE: KEY - news) non-equities market reports: Foreign exchange...................................... Oil.................................................... US Treasuries......................................... International bonds................................... Gold....................................... or CRB index of commodity futures........................ Keywords: MARKETS STOCKS =2
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