Stocks fell, as worries of a global growth slowdown weighed on investors. Both China and Germany reported soft manufacturing data, which caused jitters to pulse through the markets throughout the trading day, even strong jobless data couldn’t help. First-time claims for unemployment benefits dropped to 348,000, a four-year low and a better number than expected. Also, the Conference Board’s Leading Economic Indicators index for February increased by 0.7%, more than the expected 0.6% uptick. Tech sector closed in the negative territory. Intuit ended 4% lower, after the co. said its TurboTax online-unit sales rose 14% from the year-ago period and reiterated its full-year revenue growth forecast of between 9% and 11%. Decliners also included Apple, Dell, Oracle, Juniper Networks and Hewlett-Packard. Meanwhile, Western Digital rose 6.6%after Needham & Co. raised its rating to strong buy from buy, reporting that the stock is “significantly undervalued” since Western Digital bought Hitachi’s disk-drive business. In the evening trade Micron fell 2.3% after the co. reported bigger-than-expected losses. Implied volatility surged to the 15.8 level on moderate trading volumes.
Friday, March 23, 2012
Fell on global growth worries
Stocks fell, as worries of a global growth slowdown weighed on investors. Both China and Germany reported soft manufacturing data, which caused jitters to pulse through the markets throughout the trading day, even strong jobless data couldn’t help. First-time claims for unemployment benefits dropped to 348,000, a four-year low and a better number than expected. Also, the Conference Board’s Leading Economic Indicators index for February increased by 0.7%, more than the expected 0.6% uptick. Tech sector closed in the negative territory. Intuit ended 4% lower, after the co. said its TurboTax online-unit sales rose 14% from the year-ago period and reiterated its full-year revenue growth forecast of between 9% and 11%. Decliners also included Apple, Dell, Oracle, Juniper Networks and Hewlett-Packard. Meanwhile, Western Digital rose 6.6%after Needham & Co. raised its rating to strong buy from buy, reporting that the stock is “significantly undervalued” since Western Digital bought Hitachi’s disk-drive business. In the evening trade Micron fell 2.3% after the co. reported bigger-than-expected losses. Implied volatility surged to the 15.8 level on moderate trading volumes.
