Despite opening to early gains today, stocks on Wall Street have sank back towards the negative side as investors are still uneasy on the growth prospects of the U.S. and the fluid situation in Europe. The U.S. Labor Department said unemployment fell in two-thirds of the largest cities in the country for August, an improvement over the month before. The economy, however, did not add any net jobs and the unemployment rate stayed flat at 9.1 percent. In stocks, Amazon (AMZN) is getting a lot of buzz as the first real contender to Apple (AAPL) in the tablet market. Shares of the ecommerce giant are up over 4.5 percent as the company is expected to launch a new Kindle that’s priced competitively at $199 and could rival the dominant and pricier iPad. Shares of Boeing (BA) are also edging slightly higher after popping yesterday when the planemaker said it was finally ready to deliver its first 787 Dreamliner. Commodities also dropped lower as oil prices sank over 2.5 percent as U.S. supply unexpectedly increased and speculation that demand could drop from an unresolved Euro crisis. Precious metals also fell as gold dipped over 2 percent and silver fell over 4 percent as investors do a little profit-taking after the recent bounce back.
Major U.S. Stock Indices
DJIA: 11,137.63 (-0.47 percent)
S&P 500: 1,165.52 (-0.84 percent)
NASDAQ: 2,524.57 (-0.87 percent)
Russell 2000: 668.71 (-1.69 percent)
In other news:
- Amazon’s Jeff Bezos says the Kindle is a service, not a product. The real growth potential is what consumers can buy with the tablet. [Bloomberg]
- Hedge funds endured a tough summer of investor redemptions, but maybe its because so many of them failed to match the performance of simple index mutual funds. [CNBC]
- Famous fund manager John Paulson, who has been very public about his bullishness on gold, would probably like a do-over on 2011. Paulson’s took some major hits so far this year, including the Sino-Forest (TRE.TSX) scandal, HP (HPQ) collapse, and now gold (GLD). [WSJ]
- Can German Chancellor Angela Merkel come through with a solution? [Economist]
- The performing stocks under $5 this year. [The Street]
Check back for more news.
