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Stocks fall gold up on high oil prices { October 9 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18968-2004Oct8.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18968-2004Oct8.html
Stocks Fall on Weak Job Report, High Oil Prices
Associated Press
Saturday, October 9, 2004; Page E03
NEW YORK , Oct. 8 -- Stocks fell Friday as investors showed disappointment with the government's latest employment report and the price of oil moved above $53 a barrel. The major indicators ended the week lower.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 70.20, or 0.7 percent, to 10,055.20.
Broader stock indicators were sharply lower. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index was down 8.51, or 0.8 percent, at 1122.14, and the Nasdaq composite index dropped 28.55, or 1.5 percent, to 1919.97.
Stocks ended the week lower as climbing oil prices, sluggish retail sales for September and nervousness about the job report and the health of the economy prompted investors to collect the modest profit from the previous few weeks of gains. Friday's selloff put even more pressure on companies releasing earnings next week to far surpass Wall Street's expectations.
For the week, the Dow dropped 1.35 percent, the S&P fell 0.83 percent and the Nasdaq was down 1.14 percent.
Investors hoping for momentum from General Electric's earnings were disappointed. GE slipped 21 cents, to $33.74, after its earnings met Wall Street estimates. The conglomerate credited higher industrial sales and Olympics coverage on its NBC television subsidiary for an 11 percent rise in earnings.
Alcoa, the first Dow component to report third-quarter earnings, lost 68 cents, to $33.40, after reporting profit of 34 cents a share, in line with Wall Street's reduced expectations for the aluminum company. The company blamed the recent hurricanes and labor troubles for its minimal gains from a year ago.
Semiconductor maker Advanced Micro Devices met analysts' forecast with earnings of 12 cents per share for the quarter, but its sales were slightly less than investors had hoped for. AMD slipped 61, cents to $13.50. Rival Intel fell 69 cents, to $20.55, ahead of its earnings report next week.
Krispy Kreme Doughnuts tumbled 56 cents, to $12.51, after the company announced that the Securities and Exchange Commission has opened a formal investigation into the company's operations.
Other Indicators
• The New York Stock Exchange composite index fell 17.80, to 6636.42; the American Stock Exchange index rose 6.70, to 1285.20; and the Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks fell 6.95, to 575.65.
• Declining issues narrowly outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE, where trading volume fell to 1.29 billion shares, from 1.45 billion on Thursday. On the Nasdaq Stock Market, decliners outnumbered advancers by 9 to 4 and volume totaled 1.66 billion, down from 1.72 billion.
• The price of the Treasury's 10-year note rose $9.38 per $1,000 invested, and its yield fell to 4.13 percent, from 4.25 percent on Thursday.
• The dollar fell against the Japanese yen and the euro. In late New York trading, a dollar bought 109.42 yen, down from 111.19 late Thursday, and a euro bought $1.2418, up from $1.2296.
• Light, sweet crude oil for November delivery settled at $53.31, up 64 cents, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
• Gold for current delivery rose to $423.10 a troy ounce, from $418.00 on Thursday, on the New York Mercantile Exchange's Commodity Exchange.
© 2004 The Washington Post Company
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