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 to buoy U.S. equities.

Weighing on markets was a less-than-impressive French debt offering, a falling euro, and a tepid German bond auction on Wednesday.

In U.S. corporate news, retailers Macy’s, Limited and Zumiez all posted solid same-store sales results and boosted their future earnings guidance higher.

Pepsi fell after reports that the soft drink maker is mulling cutting 4,000 employees and lowering pension contributions in an effort to raise earnings. Shares were trading lower by 32 cents to $66.41 per share.

Eastman Kodak continued to fall on reports the iconic company may be on the verge of filing bankruptcy. The firm has already been warned about possible delisting from the New York Stock Exchange. Shares of EK were last quoted at just 42 cents.

In commodities, gold was lower by $13.60 to $1,599 a troy ounce, silver was off 28 cents to $28.91 and oil was down 70 cents to $102.49 a barrel.

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Steve Jobs’ resignation as Apple CEO, speculation on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s upcoming economic stimulus plan and rising claims for jobless benefits has weakened the United States stock market during Thursday morning’s trade.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 54 points, or 0.5 percent, at 11,266. The S&P 500 was down by 4 points, or 0.3 percent, at 1174, while the Nasdaq was minus 17 points, or 0.7 percent, at 2451.

Apple shares dropped 4.7 percent in pre-market trading. The world’s most valuable technology company makes up 3.2 percent of the S&P 500, 9.3 percent of the Nasdaq Composite Index and 15 percent of the Nasdaq 100. Halfway through the morning, Apple shares were losing 2 percent at $368.53, while rivals Google and IBM were gaining 2 percent and 1 percent, respectively.

Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook will succeed the cancer-stricken Jobs, who will become Apple chairman.

TiVo shares were up 13.1 percent to $9.18; Applied Materials dropped 2.7 percent to $11.05; while Diageo improved 3.7 percent to $76.46.

Investors are awaiting Bernanke’s announcement on new policies to pump up the world’s largest economy. He will speak in Jackson Hole, WY, on Friday.

Also impacting the market is a Labor Department report saying that the number of people filing for unemployment benefits increased by 5,000 to 417,000 claims as of August 20. This was the first time that claims rose unexpectedly compared with last week’s 412,000. The increase downplayed forecasts of a decrease of 8,000, to 400,000 claims.

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As unemployment hovers at 9 percent nationwide, more and more people are deciding that this is exactly the time to roll the dice and create their own jobs.

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Jharkhand’s capital Ranchi has emerged as the top employment provider among tier-III cities in the last quarter of fiscal 2010-11, said a survey report released Monday.

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Long Beach, CA, United States (AHN) – Boeing is cutting hundreds of workers from its C-17 plant in Long Beach by next year.

The company is reducing the workforce by 900 positions following a decrease in orders from the government.

The plant regularly produces 14 airplanes but will only make 10 by next year.

Chicago-based Boeing has been working to increase international sales of the aircraft, an airlifter used by the U.S. Defense Department and NATO that was first manufactured 17 years ago.

Last November, the White House announced that it had reached an agreement with India to purchase 10 of the planes. There are currently 19 C-17s in operation overseas, including four in Canada and six in the United Kingdom.

“Reducing the number of C-17 s we delivery every year — and doing that with a smaller workforce — will allow us to keep the production line open beyond 2012, ” Bob Ciesla, C-17 program manager, told the Long Beach Press-Telegram.

Mayor Bob Foster said in a statement to the Long Beach Post, “We will continue our efforts to support Boeing in generating additional orders to preserve the thousands of jobs that remain, and our Workforce Investment Board will commit resources to assist affected employees.”

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – Jobs was the word to watch as President Barack Obama on Friday announced his economic team while touring a window manufacturing company that has benefited from his administration’s economic policies.

Addressing more than 100 workers at the Thompson Creek Window Co. in Landover, MD, Obama said, “Government can’t guarantee Thompson Creek or any business will be successful, but government can knock down barriers like a lack of affordable credit or high costs for investment or high costs for hiring.”

“Incentives like these are helping companies across America,” the president commented, adding “The jobs numbers released this morning reflect that growth. The economy added more than 100,000 jobs last month, and the unemployment rate fell sharply.”

According to the White House, the company has benefited from tax credits since 2009 and expanded. It also has plans for a major modernization and more new hiring, on top of a 40 percent growth in the workforce in 2010.

Defining his administration’s mission as “to accelerate hiring and to accelerate growth,” Obama added, “And that depends on making our economy more competitive so that we’re fostering new jobs in new industries, and training workers to fill them.”

Continuing the “‘major retooling” of his administration to reach these goals, the president announced his economy team, calling them “men and women who will help America fulfill in this mission.”

Obama announced appointment of Gene Sperling as director and Jason Furman as principal deputy at the National Economic Council while Heather Higginbottom got the post of deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget.

In addition, Katharine Abraham was named to the Council of Economic Advisers.

Earlier, during a tour of the window company, Obama stopped at a window framing station.

The president donned safety glasses, saying “so that I don’t violate the law” and watched four workers in blue company T-shirts emblazoned with “Home Sweet Thompson Creek,” frame windows.

Further along the way, Obama stopped at a fusion welder and watched a woman put the side frames for a window into the welder, which then did the rest.

Holding the finished product briefly, Obama smiled and laughed. The tour did not last more than six minutes in all.

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Although more Houston-area residents were working in November, according to the Texas Workforce Commission, the rate jumped because more local residents were looking for jobs.

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Stocks closed at two-year highs Thursday, with two of the three major indexes hitting their highest levels since September 2008. Investors looked on the brighter side of mixed reports on housing and jobs that came out before the opening bell.

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The overall employment figure in the country rose by 12.96 lakh during the last one year with the IT/BPO sector generating maximum employment opportunities.

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London, England, United Kingdom (AHN) – British Prime Minister David Cameron attempted Monday to win back the trust of Britons after Chancellor George Osborne unveiled last week a spending review that revealed $121.5 billion (81 billion pounds) in program cuts. Cameron was scheduled to promise jobs and growth over the next four years as part of a new economic dynamism the coalition government will pursue.

Cameron’s speech at the Confederation of British Industries sought to counter fears that the austerity measures will place at risk the country’s fragile economic recovery. A major British think tank has warned that the budget cuts will affect all British families, regardless of their economic standing.

To boost the British economy, which in turn is expected to create growth, jobs and opportunities, Cameron secured the backing of big business in opening up access to finance, creating an attractive business environment for venture capital funding and opening lending anew to small businesses.

Cameron expects the private sector to take the lead in replacing the 500,000 public sector jobs to be lost because of the budget cuts.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Business Secretary Vince Cable will also address the CBI in a bid to convince business leaders that the spending review would not result to a double-dip recession for Britain. However, gross domestic product figures scheduled for release this week are expected to confirm that growth has slowed in the third quarter to 0.4 percent from 1.2 percent in the second quarter.

Labor leader Ed Miliband will also address the CBI.

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