At Least Doughnuts Rose
Weakening employment numbers and an announced bankruptcy by California’s
PG&E sent a shiver through Wall Street Friday as stocks threw back a good
chunk of Thursday’s meaty gains. All three major averages finished off their
lows, but that still left Nasdaq down 3.6%, the Dow down 1.3%, and the S&P
500 down 2.0%.
The economy lost 81,000 jobs in March, and that was a big shift away from the
67,000 job increase economists had expected. The decline was the largest since
November 1991 makes a strong case for an inter-meeting Fed rate cut.
Also in the March jobs report, unemployment edged up 0.1% to the as-expected
4.3% level, and average hourly earnings rose 0.4% which was higher than the 0.3%
increase analysts expected.
“You had a great rally yesterday, and you’re giving up a part of it.
That’s not too bad though,” said Robert Robbins, Chief Investment
Strategist, The Robinson Humphrey Co.
“The important thing to realize is that the S&P 500 diverged
positively from the 10-day traders index, which is a measure of selling
pressure, and that divergence between March 22 and the April 3 lows sets up a
potential final low to the bear market decline. We’ll watch and see how this
setback goes,” he added.
According to preliminary numbers, the Nasdaq lost 64.61 to 1720.39, the Dow
fell 126.96 to 9791.09, and the S&P 500 slipped 23.01 to 1128.43.
Top-performing sectors were gold and silver
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integrated oils
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Sectors under pressure were semiconductors
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computer technology
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down 3.4%, and banks
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Avoiding the tech swoon were Brocade
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Systems
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Also avoiding the downturn was a company about as far away from optical networking and semis
as you can get. Krispy Kreme
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volume. Sector of the day: Doughnuts!
Biggest Dow losers were Citigroup
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down 5.0%, AT&T
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Dow winners were Johnson & Johnson
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up 1.5%, and Exxon Mobil
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Banks joining Citigroup and J.P. Morgan to the downside were Bank of America
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and telecom debt are worrying the sector.
In the Internets, eBay
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positive close in a row.
Looking ahead, the March Producer Price Index is the next big economic
report, and it is due out on April 12.