Wall St slides; Dow down 12 pts on flat productivity report

Wall Street extended its decline yesterday, dipping lower after the Labour Department said productivity was flat in the third quarter while wages rose nearly 4%. The data touched off concerns that the Federal Reserve will continue to wrestle with inflation, possibly raising interest rates again.

The Dow Jones industrial average posted its first five-day consecutive decline since June 2005 following the economic news and amid mixed reports from retailers on October sales, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which had disappointing results last month and warned that November sales would also come in below expectations.

The economic data, which showed wage pressure was increasing at the fastest rate in more than 20 years, rattled investors who have grown concerned that the economy might be cooling too quickly. Wall Street wants a gradual slowdown so the Fed will cut interest rates.

The Dow, which fell below the 12,000 benchmark during the session, closed down 12.48 points, or 0.10%, at 12,018.54.

Broader stock indicators also declined modestly. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 0.47 point, or 0.03%, to 1,367.34, and the Nasdaq composite index declined 0.33 point, or 0.01%, to 2,334.02.

A look at how the Indian ADRs performed:

Name Infosys Sify Rediff.com India Satyam Wipro ICICI Bank HDFC Bank MTNL VSNL Dr Reddy's Lab Tata Motors Patni Computer

Symbol INFY SIFY REDF SAY WIT IBN HDB MTE VSL RDY TTM PTI

Price 51.52 8.68 15.00 21.44 14.22 35.19 68.27 6.34 19.36 16.84 18.58 19.65

Change 0.02 -0.02 -0.06 -0.19 -0.01 0.66 0.59 -0.05 -0.21 0.12 0.08 0.31

% Chg 0.04% -0.23% -0.40% -0.88% -0.07% 1.91% 0.87% -0.78% -1.07% 0.72% 0.43% 1.60%

Volume 736,640 368,842 96,823 611,000 256,900 628,300 68,500 97,700 30,600 291,500 231,400 84,400

High 51.63 8.88 15.24 21.67 14.29 35.30 68.41 6.42 19.54 16.97 18.63 19.75

Low 50.73 8.55 14.81 21.25 14.00 34.57 67.57 6.26 19.26 16.80 18.30 19.07

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bonds fell, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rising to 4.60% from 4.57% late Thursday. The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices rose.

Light, sweet crude fell 83 cents to USD 57.88 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil prices, whose decline had given a boost to stocks during their three-month rally, dropped in recent days but largely failed to prop up investor sentiment in the face of economic news.

Meanwhile, the Labor Department said the number of newly laid off workers seeking unemployment benefits rose last week to its highest level in more than three months.

Investors appeared unfazed by a Commerce Department report that showed factory orders rose a lower-than-expected 2.1% in September.

While the markets haven't fallen sharply this week - the S&P is down the most at 0.73% - the moves are eating into gains seen in a robust October, when the Dow, S&P and Nasdaq each rose more than 3% on expectations that a soft landing was indeed under way. The week's trading indicates that investors are feeling less secure about where the economy is headed.

Among retailers, Wal-Mart fell 56 cents to USD 48.29 after reporting it expects same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, to be flat in November.

Wal-Mart's disappointing news raised questions about whether the experiences of the world's largest retailer indicated trouble ahead. With the holiday season approaching, Wall Street is hoping robust consumer spending will serve as a counterpoint to weak economic readings - from gross domestic product to consumer spending - that have been seen in recent days. However, investors had bet that gas prices, which are down sharply from their year highs in July, would leave consumers eager to spend the extra money in their wallets. October sales results didn't seem to bear that out.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by about 9 to 7 on the New York Stock Exchange, where consolidated volume came to 2.7 billion shares, compared with 2.92 billion traded Wednesday.