Stocks tumble as investors remain skittish
| Stocks on Wall Street finished lower in a choppy week of trade that saw sellers take control in the week's final two sessions. The Nasdaq, which has been leading the market lower over the last few weeks of trade, was the week's laggard, with the tech index logging its first close below 4,000 since early February.
ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., economic data came in a bit better than expected, with initial jobless claims reported at 300,000, less than expectations for 320,000 and lower than the prior month's revised reading of 332,000. The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment reading jumped to 82.6 in the preliminary April reading, better than March's 80.0...
On Wednesday, the minutes from the FOMC's latest meeting were released, indicating that some Committee members were concerned that its new forward guidance could imply a change in its policy intentions. The Committee also said the severe winter weather in much of the U.S. held down economic activity early in the year, and said international developments, including those in China and Ukraine, bear watching...
China's imports fell 11.3% from the prior month, sharply lower than expectations for expansion of 3.9%, with the world's second largest economy also reporting exports that fell 6.5% against estimates for a 4.8% increase.
COMPANY NEWS: General Motors (GM) was again in the news this week, with the carmaker on Thursday placing two engineers on paid leave as part of its investigation into the circumstances leading to recall of more than 2.6M vehicles due to ignition defects. Later that same day, the company said it expects to take a $1.3 billion charge in the first quarter on recall-related repairs. Late in the session on Friday, a trove of documents were released by the the House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce, which indicated, among other things, that CEO Mary Barra knew in 2011 about the company's handling of Saturn and Chevrolet models being probed by the NHTSA related to defects...
Banking giants Wells Fargo (WFC) and JPMorgan (JPM) reported earnings Friday morning, with Wells' results beating expectations while JPMorgan missed estimates... eBay (EBAY) and activist investor Carl Icahn agreed to settle their proxy fight, with Icahn agreeing to withdraw his proposal for eBay to spin-off its PayPal unit. INDEXES: The Dow lost 2.4% to 16,026.75, the S&P 500 lost 2.6% to 1,815.69, and the Nasdaq lost 3.1% to 3,999.73 |
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