Published: 12:30PM BST 26 Aug 2010
Dow drops below 10,000 as Europe bounces
The Dow Jones closed below the sensitive 10,000 level on Thursday, as investors shrugged off better US jobs figures and a modest rebound in European stocks and braced for a sharp revision of US economic growth on Friday.
The US blue chip index fell 0.7pc to 9986.81. The last time it dropped below the this psychological threshold was July 6. The broader S&P 500 index lost 0.8pc to 1,047.22 and the tech-rich Nasdaq slipped 1.07pc to 2,118.69.
"People are worried that tomorrow could be an ugly day for the market," analyst Scott Marcouiller of Wells Fargo Advisors told AFP.
Most analysts expect a significant downward revison of gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the second quarter from 2.4pc to 1.4pc.
Markets also want to see in to see if Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, in a speech on Friday sheds any light on how weak US economy is and whether it slide back into recession.
US Labor Department data released before trading started on Thursday said the number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits for the week to August 21 dipped to 473,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 504,000.
The latest figure was better than most economists' expectations of 485,000, but they said it continued to reflect the beleaguered jobless situation threatening to push back the world's largest economy into recession.
"When it comes down to it, the claims data provided more of the same in the sense that it continues to suggest hiring activity is not picking up to any great degree even if the number of layoffs has stabilized," said Patrick O'Hare, analyst at Briefing.com.
European bourses rose on Thursday, encouraged by strong German data and the new US jobs data.
London's benchmark FTSE 100 index clawed back Wednesday's losses to end up 0.9pc at 5,155.84 points as mining companies climbed with commodity prices.
Kazakhmys, Kazakhstan’s biggest copper producer, was the top riser - up 5.2pc - followed by Amec, the energy engineering company, which advanced 5pc after first-half profit jumped 36pc.
The UK is also reporting second-quarter GDP figures on Friday. Premliminary esitmates showed the economy expanded 1.1pc over the three months - the fastest pace in four years - but the respected National Institute of Economic and Social Research (Niesr) has called this a "blip".
Paris's CAC 40 rose 0.7pc to 3,475.03 and in Frankfurt the DAX added 0.2pc to 5,912.58.
Earlier, the Nikkei rose 0.7pc to close at 8906.48. It was lifted a rally by the Dow late on Wednesday to end 0.2pc higher after falling below the 10,000 threshold for several hours following grim reports on the housing market and goods orders.
Dow drops below 10,000 as Europe bounces
The Dow Jones closed below the sensitive 10,000 level on Thursday, as investors shrugged off better US jobs figures and a modest rebound in European stocks and braced for a sharp revision of US economic growth on Friday.
The US blue chip index fell 0.7pc to 9986.81. The last time it dropped below the this psychological threshold was July 6. The broader S&P 500 index lost 0.8pc to 1,047.22 and the tech-rich Nasdaq slipped 1.07pc to 2,118.69.
"People are worried that tomorrow could be an ugly day for the market," analyst Scott Marcouiller of Wells Fargo Advisors told AFP.
Most analysts expect a significant downward revison of gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the second quarter from 2.4pc to 1.4pc.
Markets also want to see in to see if Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, in a speech on Friday sheds any light on how weak US economy is and whether it slide back into recession.
US Labor Department data released before trading started on Thursday said the number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits for the week to August 21 dipped to 473,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 504,000.
The latest figure was better than most economists' expectations of 485,000, but they said it continued to reflect the beleaguered jobless situation threatening to push back the world's largest economy into recession.
"When it comes down to it, the claims data provided more of the same in the sense that it continues to suggest hiring activity is not picking up to any great degree even if the number of layoffs has stabilized," said Patrick O'Hare, analyst at Briefing.com.
European bourses rose on Thursday, encouraged by strong German data and the new US jobs data.
London's benchmark FTSE 100 index clawed back Wednesday's losses to end up 0.9pc at 5,155.84 points as mining companies climbed with commodity prices.
Kazakhmys, Kazakhstan’s biggest copper producer, was the top riser - up 5.2pc - followed by Amec, the energy engineering company, which advanced 5pc after first-half profit jumped 36pc.
The UK is also reporting second-quarter GDP figures on Friday. Premliminary esitmates showed the economy expanded 1.1pc over the three months - the fastest pace in four years - but the respected National Institute of Economic and Social Research (Niesr) has called this a "blip".
Paris's CAC 40 rose 0.7pc to 3,475.03 and in Frankfurt the DAX added 0.2pc to 5,912.58.
Earlier, the Nikkei rose 0.7pc to close at 8906.48. It was lifted a rally by the Dow late on Wednesday to end 0.2pc higher after falling below the 10,000 threshold for several hours following grim reports on the housing market and goods orders.