Stocks around the world all dropped yesterday.
May 3, 2012- Global stocks along with the euro dropped on Wednesday following the release of a jobs report in the U.S. that showed companies hired the fewest people in over seven months, last month. Also hurting stocks was the announcement that the factory sector in the euro zone fell even further.
The latest reports came just 24 hours after a report showed that U.S. factory activity had its strongest increase in over 10 months and helped the Dow to its highest level in over four years.
However, on Wednesday the Dow and S&P 500 were down as an air of caution took over ahead of the government’s jobs report for April that is due out on Friday. Companies in the U.S. added just 119,000 jobs during April falling well short of the estimated 177,000, which is worrisome for the labor market that has found it hard to find traction.
The bad news on jobs followed even more economic news from Europe that was discouraging. Factories in the euro zone sank even deeper during April. The downturn hit Spain and Italy very hard and was appearing to take root in the region’s core members Germany and France.
The Dow ended the day off nearly 11 points, while the S&P 500 lost 3.5 points, but the Nasdaq was up 9.4 points.
The euro dropped for the third consecutive session against the U.S. dollar to end at $1.3155.
No Trackbacks.