Consumer and tech sectors led equities lower in the final session of month as investors turned cautious ahead of key manufacturing and spending data to be released on Friday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the day down 47 points, or 0.4%, at 10,788. The S&P 500 dipped 4 points, or 0.3%, to 1,141 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 8 points, or 0.3%, to 2,368.
Thursday began with better-than-expected economic data. The Department of Commerce said that the U.S. economy grew 1.7% in the second quarter, in its third and final read on gross domestic product for the period. The increase was slightly stronger than the rise of 1.6% that economists had been expecting, according to Briefing.com.
Troubling news from the Europe also kept stocks under pressure as Moody's downgraded Spain's debt by one notch and Ireland's central bank detailed costs of a bank rescue plan.
Adding to uncertainty regarding U.S. trade relations with China, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would penalize China for undervaluing its currency late Wednesday although it remained unclear whether the legislation would get enough votes in the Senate to become law.
With mixed economic reports and continuing global concerns, investors decided to lock in the strong gains in the last month.
"There's still this very sluggish growth even with very low rates and the Fed doing everything they can to stimulate growth," said Bob Enck, president and CEO of Equinox Fund Management. Enck said that while even the prospect of another round of quantitative easing has helped the market, he doesn't see much long-term potential there.
"The real driver is going to be U.S. businesses and consumers coming back into the mix and becoming more active. Right now, with all the uncertainty from health care reforms, taxes and other regulatory unknowns, that's slowing everything down."
"For us," he said, "seeing the gloomy confidence number and the Fed's concern about the economy, we think the time is right for investors to protect themselves with non-correlated assets classes."
Elsewhere in commodity markets, the December gold contract settled slightly lower at $1,309.60 an ounce.
No comments:
Post a Comment