| Stocks Begin December In The Red |
| Dec-03-2012 |
| Keywords: manufacturing, ism, november, china, u.s., fiscal cliff, stocks, lower |
The month kicks off with losses on Wall Street. The stock market today taken back by a surprise drop in manufacturing activity.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the session down 60-points. The Nasdaq Composite lost 8-points. The S&P 500 ended trading with a 7-point loss.
The Institute for Supply Management's index of purchasing managers dropped to 49.5% from 51.7% in October, signaling contraction in the manufacturing sector. The November was well below Wall Street estimates, and was the lowest level of the ISM Manufacturing index since July 2009.
Meanwhile, China's manufacturing sector in November expanded for the first time in 13 months, according to HSBC. That news easing somewhat concerns that the world's No. 2 economy could be in for a so-called hard landing. Some economists said that it appears accommodative monetary and fiscal policies out of Beijing may be helping to avoid that scenario.
The manufacturing sector in the embattled Eurozone showed modest signs of recovery. Eurozone manufacturing in November contracted at a slower pace than the month before.
Despite the improvement, manufacturing still shrunk in the 17-member currency bloc's four biggest economies, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, illustrating that the crisis is not limited to the periphery.
The market is also mindful of the impasse on Capitol Hill. Over the weekend, Treasury Secretary Geithner, the president's lead negotiator in budget talks aimed at avoiding the "fiscal cliff," and House Speaker John Boehner exchanged barbs on the Sunday news show circuit.
Boehner calling the president's plan to raise taxes by $1.6 trillion on top of added stimulus spending a "joke." Geithner, stuck up for his bosses plan, saying that it is a "balanced" approach, and that he's waiting for Republicans to offer alternatives to the president's plan. |
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Posted by Lou Dobbs Staff at 8:00 PM Email to a friend |
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