Diane Alter – AHN News Reporter
New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Stocks fell Friday morning on reports that several euro-region countries may face credit downgrades by Standard & Poor’s and of JP Morgan’s less than impressive earnings. Just after 10 a.m. on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped 107 points, the Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 10 points and the NASDAQ dropped 17 points. Weighing on stocks in the U.S. was an earnings report from bellwether JP Morgan that showed earnings inline with expectations, but revenues that fell short. Also dragging stocks lower was a release that revealed the U.S. trade deficit widened [...] Continue Reading…

Diane Alter – AHN News Reporter
New York, NY, United States (AHN) – U.S. stocks slumped on the open Thursday on continued worries about the eurozone’s sovereign debt crisis. Investors shrugged off encouraging news on the unemployment front and sold into the previous two-day rally. Just after 9:30 a.m. on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 107 points, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index dropped 11 points and the NASDAQ gave back 13 points. Reports that private sector employment climbed 325,000 in December, and that the number of planned layoffs at U.S. firms fell 1.6 percent last month, its lowest level since June 2010, did little [...] Continue Reading…

Diane Alter – AHN News Reporter
New York, NY, United States (AHN) – U.S. stocks rose Thursday following news that the number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits hit a 3 1/2-year low. Just after the opening bell on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 40 points, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 6 points and the NASDAQ advanced 18 points. Initial jobless claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 4,000 to a seasonally adjusted 364,000, the Labor Department reported, reaching the lowest level since April 2008. The data shows that the labor market is showing strong signs of gains. The improving [...] Continue Reading…

Diane Alter – AHN News Reporter
New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Wall Street stocks fell on the open Monday as doubts continued to linger that a deal over economic integration in Europe will not be enough to keep the region’s two-year sovereign debt crisis from spreading farther. Last week’s summit in Brussels did not produce decisive initiatives, leaving the eurozone, and the rest of the world, prone to more shocks to already shaky financial systems. Last week, Standard & Poor’s put 15 eurozone countries on a credit watch for a potential downgrade. The European Union had agreed to set stricter budget rules for the eurozone area [...] Continue Reading…

Diane Alter – AHN News Reporter
New York, NY, United States (AHN) – U.S. stocks were enjoying an early “Santa Claus rally” Wednesday sparked by a move from the Fed and global central banks to add liquidity to markets. With an hour left in the trading day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 385 points, the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index climbed 40 points and the NASDAQ added 80 points. Giving stocks the leg-up was a move by the U.S. Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, and the central banks of Canada, Britain, Japan and Switzerland in which they all agreed to lower the cost of existing dollar [...] Continue Reading…

Diane Alter – AHN News Reporter
New York, NY, United States (AHN) – U.S. stocks slid on the open Wednesday as worries over Europe’s debt crisis persisted. Just after 9:30 a.m., the Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 120 points, the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index lost 11 points and the NASDAQ fell 18. Also dragging stocks lower was a report that showed the Consumer Price Index edged down 0.1 percent in October. Analysts had expected the level to remain constant after increasing 0.3 percent in September. While the index shows little signs of inflation, giving the Federal Reserve more leeway to further stimulate the economy if needed, [...] Continue Reading…

Diane Alter – AHN News Reporter
New York, NY, United States (AHN) – U.S. stocks reacted negatively to the slight dip in unemployment numbers Friday morning. Just after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was lower by 71 points, the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index was down 8 and the NASDAQ was off 15 points. Only 80,000 jobs were added in October, but it was enough to dip the unemployment rate to 9 percent from 9.1 percent. Disappointing investors was news from the Labor Department that showed hiring slowed in October, and job growth was much stronger in August and September. Trading will be choppy [...] Continue Reading…

Diane Alter – AHN News Reporter
New York, NY, United States (AHN) – U.S. stocks rallied Friday morning on the heels of strong gains in Europe. Investors were buoyant and hopeful this weekend’s European Summit would lead to some sort of resolve to stem the region’s threatening sovereign debt crisis. By 11 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up about 200 points, the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index rose almost 20 points, and the recently battered NASDAQ climbed 40 points. Overseas, Europe was widely higher overall as the Stoxx Europe 600 jumped 1.9 percent. Even though an agreement to expand the euro zone’s bailout [...] Continue Reading…

Vittorio Hernandez – AHN News
Frankfurt, Germany (AHN) – Analysts’ speculations that the death of Apple founder Steve Jobs would cause the tech company’s stocks to plummet appear to have basis – at least in Germany. Reports said Apple shares in Germany fell up to 5.3 percent but eventually settled to $365.04 at 8:50 a.m. in Frankfurt before electronic trading started at 9 a.m. Jobs died on Wednesday of pancreatic cancer at the age of 56. Jobs, who initially went on a medical leave and even underwent a liver transplant in 2009, is primarily responsible for growing Apple’s market value to the current $351 billion from only $5 [...] Continue Reading…

Linda Young – AHN News Writer
Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – Shares of Chinese Internet stocks took a nose-dive in value in New York trading after an announcement of a potential fraud investigation of some Chinese firms by the United States Justice Department. Justice Department official Robert Khuzami, director of enforcement at the US financial services regulator, announced he was considering launching a fraud investigation. He said it was because of accounting irregularities at several Chinese firms with shares that trade publicly in the U.S. Khuzami did not disclose the identities of the Chinese companies or auditors whom the Justice Department is considering investigating. In addition, he [...] Continue Reading…