AP, NEW YORK  -- Wall Street tumbled Thursday on more disappointing economic news -- retailers posted sluggish back-to-school sales reports and the government said the number of workers seeking unemployment benefits spiked last week. The Dow Jones industrials fell more than 200 points.

Investors, highly anxious about the overall state of the economy, were further unsettled when many of the nation's retailers said shoppers curtailed spending last month due to higher gas and food prices. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, beat Wall Street projections because of its discounts.
 
Meanwhile, the Labor Department said new applications for unemployment insurance rose by 15,000 from the previous week. That broadly missed expectations for a fourth-straight week of declines.
 
Crude prices rose as Wall Street waited to see if a weekly U.S. inventory report would contain evidence that slowing economic growth has cut demand. The Energy Department is scheduled to release its report on oil stockpiles for the week ended Aug. 29 later in the session.
 
In midmorning trading, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 218.53, or 1.89 percent, to 11,314.35.
 
Broader indexes were also lower. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 21.02, or 1.65 percent, to 1,253.96; the Nasdaq composite index dropped 41.06, or 1.76 percent, to 2,292.67.
 
Bond prices moved higher Thursday. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 3.67 percent from 3.70 percent late Wednesday.

Comments

Add New

Write comment
Name:
Email:	We don't publish your mail. See privacy policy.
Title:
	Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.