Been a bad week for stocks and oil. I hadn’t paid it much attention earlier in the week, did notice stocks were down from it’s high last week. Just flirts with 13,000 then drops again. Depressing.
Stocks resumed their steep slide Friday as investors digested a better-than-expected home sales report that still showed continued weakness, and as traders squared their portfolios ahead of the three-day holiday weekend. The Dow Jones industrials fell more than 100 points.
The National Association of Realtors said existing home sales fell 1 percent last month. That’s better than analysts’ forecast of a 1.6 percent decline, but the news was still unwelcome to a market nervous about the continuing housing slump and the impact of the rising price of oil on consumers.
Meanwhile, rising oil prices also weighed on stocks. A barrel of oil is up $1.74 at $132.55 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil prices are set for a third weekly gain after surging to a record $135.09 a barrel on Thursday. Investors are buying on the belief that supply can’t keep up with growing global demand from countries like China and India.
…In late morning trading, the Dow fell 142.08, or 1.13 percent, to 12,483.54.
It’s not all bad news, some companies are doing rather well despite the downturn. 😀
Update: At the end of the day/week, things looked a bit down overall.
The Dow Jones industrial average ended the week down 507.17, or 3.91 percent, at 12,479.63. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index finished down 49.42, or 3.47 percent, at 1,375.93. The Nasdaq composite index ended the week down 84.18, or 3.33 percent, at 2,444.67.
