Wall Street falls on strong dollar
November 12, 2009
By Rodrigo Campos
New York - United States stocks fell broadly on Thursday as a stronger dollar weighed on commodity-linked shares and a guarded outlook from Wal-Mart Stores Inc led to worries about consumer spending.
The greenback's rise helped push oil futures, which are denominated in dollars, down by 3 percent and caused energy shares to fall. The S&P integrated oil and gas index fell 1.5 percent.
Shares of Hess Corp were down 2.5 percent to $55.95 and Occidental Petroleum Corp slipped 1.6 percent to $81.81.
"As the S&P 500 has gone above 1,100, it has had a hard time holding on to gains," said Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial in Shelton, Connecticut.
"In order to get to the next level up, it does need a strong catalyst, and most of the time the stronger dollar has been a negative for the market."
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 91.98 points, or 0.89 percent, to 10,199.28. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 10.93 points, or 0.99 percent, to 1,087.58. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 16.13 points, or 0.74 percent, to 2,150.77.
Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, reported a higher quarterly profit and its shares rose 0.5 percent to $53.24, but it forecast earnings for the key holiday quarter that could miss Wall Street's consensus estimate.
Concern about consumer spending weighed on the S&P retail index, which fell 0.8 percent.
Helping to limit losses, Advanced Micro Systems Inc rose 21.8 percent to $6.48 after it agreed with fellow chipmaker Intel Corp to settle all outstanding legal disputes. Intel will pay AMD $1.25 billion as part of the settlement.
Advanced Micro was the among the most traded stocks on the New York Stock Exchange
Network equipment maker 3Com Corp gained 31.1 percent to $7.46 after Hewlett-Packard Co said on Wednesday it has agreed to buy the company for $2.7 billion. Hewlett-Packard shed 0.6 percent to $49.70.
Shares of Brocade Communications Systems Inc fell 12.7 percent to $8.08 after a brokerage questioned the company's ability to gain market share after news of the deal between Hewlett-Packard and 3Com.
Shares of insurers and banks were also among top laggards, with the S&P financial sector index down 1.8 percent.
Volume was light on the New York Stock Exchange with 1.05 billion shares changing hands, below last year's estimated daily average of 1.49 billion. On the Nasdaq, about 2.22 billion shares traded, slightly below last year's daily average of 2.28 billion.
Declining stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a ratio of about 4 to 1, while on the Nasdaq nearly 10 stocks fell for every three that rose. - Reuters
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