US stocks declined after a government report showed the unemployment rate rose more than forecast in June, suggesting that any economic recovery may falter as consumers become more reluctant to spend.
"There is still weakness in the employment situation," said Michelle Clayman, chief investment officer at New Amsterdam Partners, which manages US$1.8 billion in New York. "We need to see more of the underlying economic numbers turning around for the market to have legs."
AT&T Corp dropped as Standard & Poor's lowered its credit rating on the biggest US long-distance telephone company.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 8.05, or 0.8 percent, to 985.70. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 72.63, or 0.8 percent, to 9070.21 and the NASDAQ Composite Index sank 15.27, or 0.9 percent, to 1663.46.
In the holiday-shortened week, the S&P 500 rose 1 percent for its fifth weekly gain in six. The Dow climbed 0.9 percent and the NASDAQ jumped 2.4 percent, its biggest advance in five weeks. US exchanges closed at 1pm on Thursday and remained closed Friday for Independence Day.
Interest rates
Stocks have rallied since March as some investors bet that the lowest interest rates in 45 years and a US$350 billion package of federal tax cuts will help drive economic growth. The S&P 500 surged 15 percent in the second quarter, reaching its highest in about a year on June 17.
AT&T dropped US$0.46 to US$19.42. Standard & Poor's cut the company's debt to the second-lowest investment grade because of increased competition and sluggish sales.
About three stocks fell for every two that rose on the New York Stock Exchange. More than 761 million shares changed hands, about half of the average for a full day in the past three months.
All 10 of the industry groups in the S&P 500 declined.
Technology shares, which have been the market's best performers this year, led the drop. Microsoft Corp, the world's biggest software maker, fell US$0.43 to US$26.45 and Intel Corp, the No. 1 semiconductor producer, lost US$0.48 to US$21.73. The S&P Information Technology Index is up 20 percent this year versus a 12 percent gain for the S&P 500.
Tech sector
"The market may have gotten ahead of itself, in particular the tech sector," said Clayman.
The US unemployment rate jumped to 6.4 percent, the highest since April 1994, from 6.1 percent in May. Economists had predicted 6.2 percent, the median forecast of 69 estimates from a Bloomberg News survey. The economy lost 30,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said. Economists had forecast no change in June payrolls.
A weekly report on new claims for unemployment insurance also was worse than expected. The Labor Department said initial jobless claims rose last week to 430,000 from a revised 409,000.
Economists surveyed by Bloom-berg News had forecast 410,000 new claims.
The Institute for Supply Man-agement said its non-manufacturing index jumped to 60.6 in June, the highest since September 2000, from 54.5 a month earlier.
"Employment tends to be a lagging indicator," said Vladimir de Vassal, head of quantitative research at Glenmede Trust Co, which manages US$12 billion in Philadelphia. The service-industry report "provides greater assurance that the economy will be improving in the second half of 2003 and into next year," he said, and that means stocks will rise in the next year.
Leaders & losers
Adaptec Inc declined US$0.84 to US$7.60. The maker of circuit cards that speed up the connections between computers said sales in the quarter ended June 30 were US$107 million. It had previously forecast US$115 million to US$120 million.
Micrel Inc dropped US$0.86 to US$10.12. The maker of semiconductors for computers and communication gear said second-quarter revenue fell 3 percent to 4 percent from the previous quarter. It had forecast an increase of 3 percent to 5 percent.
Documentum Inc, which makes document-management software, plunged US$4.06 to US$15.69. The company said second-quarter revenue was US$68 million, below the US$72 million to US$73 million it expected.
Knight Trading Group Inc, the biggest market-maker of NASDAQ Stock Market securities, surged US$1.83 to US$8.50 after the company said second-quarter profit will be double its earlier forecast because trading picked up. The 27 percent surge was the stock's biggest in more than four years.
Ameritrade Holding Corp, the second-biggest shareholder in Knight after Merrill Lynch, rose US$0.46 to US$7.88.
Boston Scientific Corp, a medical-device maker, added US$0.53 to US$62.56. The company said it plans to hire 1,200 people and spend more to market a new heart stent that helped boost sales in the second quarter.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
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