Stocks fell after mixed data on growth and employment, and ahead of government spending cuts set to begin at midnight. The U.S. GDP expanded at an annual 0.1% pace in the fourth quarter, while the government initially projected last month that the economy contracted by 0.1%, which would have marked the first decline since the second quarter of 2009. Also, Chicago-area manufacturing hit an 11-month high in February. Weekly jobless claims dropped 22,000 to 344,000, below the expected level of 362,000. Groupon plunged 24.3% on company’s disappointing quarterly results and outlook. Pandora Media gave up 4.2% after in a blog posting Pandora founder Tim Westergren said the co. would begin limiting free listening on mobile devices to 40 hours a month in order to better cope with rising royalty rates. In the evening trade Groupon rose 3.5% as the co. said it will immediately replace founder and CEO Andrew Mason and the board will start searching for his successor. Gap gained 1.3% on strong earnings report.
Friday, March 1, 2013
Slid on mixed data and ahead of government spending cuts
Stocks fell after mixed data on growth and employment, and ahead of government spending cuts set to begin at midnight. The U.S. GDP expanded at an annual 0.1% pace in the fourth quarter, while the government initially projected last month that the economy contracted by 0.1%, which would have marked the first decline since the second quarter of 2009. Also, Chicago-area manufacturing hit an 11-month high in February. Weekly jobless claims dropped 22,000 to 344,000, below the expected level of 362,000. Groupon plunged 24.3% on company’s disappointing quarterly results and outlook. Pandora Media gave up 4.2% after in a blog posting Pandora founder Tim Westergren said the co. would begin limiting free listening on mobile devices to 40 hours a month in order to better cope with rising royalty rates. In the evening trade Groupon rose 3.5% as the co. said it will immediately replace founder and CEO Andrew Mason and the board will start searching for his successor. Gap gained 1.3% on strong earnings report.
