- Dubai Stocks Shed 7%, Abu Dhabi Tumbles 8%
- Regulators Compile Global List of 'Systemic Risk' Banks
- Crisis, What Crisis? Debt-Laden Dubai Just Shrugs
- Dubai's Nakheel Seeks Suspension $5.25 Billion in Bonds
- True Cost of 12 Days of Xmas Tops $87,000
- US Senator Opposes Fed Chief Bernanke Renomination
- A Weak IPO Debut for Las Vegas Sands' Macau Unit
- NBC and Comcast, a Takeover for Hollywood to Watch
- Woods Has Nothing More to Say to Police: Agent
- Tiger Woods Wants to Protect Family Privacy: Agent
- Portfolio Prep for Next Week: 'Don't Get Crazy'
- U.S. Stocks Fall on Dubai Worries
- Black Friday at Best Buy
- Strategists on Dubai: Avoid 'Rash Moves' Now
- Longer Lines, Fuller Carts This Black Friday
- Dubai Stock Market Fear Has 'Legs': Dennis Gartman
- Obama's Emission Reduction Pledge Paints Future for Autos
- Is Super Bowl Halftime Act Too Old?
MOST SHARED
- US Shoppers Spent Less Over Black Friday: NRF
- Tiger Woods Wants to Protect Family Privacy: Agent
- Dubai Stocks Shed 7%, Abu Dhabi Tumbles 8%
- Dubai's Nakheel Seeks Suspension $5.25 Billion in Bonds
- South Korea Sees Exports Bouncing, but Risks Remain
- Dubai is Harsh Reminder of Prolonged Global Recovery
- Japan Won't Intervene to Weaken Yen: Finance Minister
- US Senator Opposes Fed Chief Bernanke Renomination
More Videos
Text Size 
Writer
For those of you keeping score at home: It's stocks 0, worry warts 4.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average racked up its fourth straight decline, falling about 30 points, or 0.3 percent. The S&P 500 shed 0.2 percent and the Nasdaq dropped 0.1 percent.
Worries about growth in China have started to rattle investors here, who are concerned that the U.S. can't go this recovery alone.
"We can't have the kind of recovery we've planned without China," said Tracey Ryniec, an analyst at Zacks.com.
As a result, stocks have fallen for four straight days, including a 2-percent decline Tuesday, and struggled to hold onto even the smallest gains in today's session.
A couple of misses in today's economic reports exacerbated the market jitters: ADP said private employers cut 298,000 jobs in August, more than the 250,000 expected, and factory orders rose 1.3 percent in July, a much slower pace than the 2.2 percent expected.
The key data point this week will be the August jobs report, due out on Friday. Economists expect to see that 233,000 jobs were lost, slightly fewer than the 247,000 lost in July, and that the unemployment rate ticked up to 9.5 percent.
"[W]e reckon Friday's official number will be about 250K. That's still terrible, but it does mean that the trend towards smaller net job losses continues," Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, wrote in a note to clients. "The move to payroll stability ... is some way off yet, though."
On an encouraging note, Federal Reserve policy makers are confident the recession is ending and are therefore more comfortable slowing down their economic-recovery plan, according to minutes from their last meeting.
And the CBOE Volatility Index, widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, eased about 1 percent, ending below 29, after surging 12 percent in the previous session.
 |
"Fundamentally, it's a good time to be in the market," said Theresa Harezlak, a financial advisor at Savant Capital Management. "There is absolutely potential for more growth in this market," she said.
Hardware stocks rose following a couple of pieces of news from the sector: Dell [DELL
Loading...
()
] has agreed to sell Brocade [BRCD
Loading...
()
] networking and storage gear through its sales operations, offering corporate customers a wider selection of products.
Palm [PALM
Loading...
()
] and Research In Motion [RIMM
Loading...
()
] rose as Credit Suisse anticipates there is potential for 1.5 billion smart phones worldwide by 2015 and U.S. regulators are mulling ways to expand the reach of broadband services.
In fact, Credit Suisse upgraded its rating on RIMM and Motorola [MOT
Loading...
()
] this week, saying the under-served corporate market is likely to boost RIMM and that Motorola will benefit from better-than-expected sales and spending discipline.
And there are rumors that AT&T [T
Loading...
()
] may be looking to buy Leap Wireless [LEAP
Loading...
()
].
Meanwhile, Nokia [NOK
Loading...
()
] is taking another shot at Apple [AAPL
Loading...
()
], offering an $820 laptop in addition to its plans to launch a smartphone line.
Dow energy components ExxonMobil [XOM
Loading...
()
] and Chevron [CVX
Loading...
()
] ended lower as oil prices finished the day flat at $68.05 a barrel despite a report that showed crude supplies declined by 400,000 barrels last week.
BP [BP-LN
Loading...
()
] rose more than 4 percent after the oil company announces what it terms a "giant" oil discovery in the Gulf of Mexico. ConocoPhillips [COP
Loading...
()
] is also a partner in that project.
Gold stocks soared as one analyst pointed out: September may be bad for stocks but it's typically good for gold. Plus, the Indian wedding season is coming up, when a lot of people will be buying gold.
"Investors are turning to gold as a hedge" against financial malady, Chad Morganlander, a portfolio manager at Stifel, Nicolaus, told Reuters.
Randgold Resources [GOLD
Loading...
()
] and Royal Gold [RGLD
Loading...
()
] were up about 10 percent, while Jaguar Mining [JAG
Loading...
()
] shot up more than 15 percent.
Banks finished mostly lower, including SunTrust [STI
Loading...
()
] and Regions Financial [RF
Loading...
()
], as the sector continued to smart from rampant rumors on Tuesday — that appeared to be unfounded — that another bank was going down.
Bank of America [BAC
Loading...
()
] and JPMorgan [JPM
Loading...
()
] were among the biggest drags on the Dow.
Wells Fargo [WFC
Loading...
()
] finished lower even as the bank said it won't need to raise more money to pay back the government bailout loan.
Fannie Mae [FNM
Loading...
()
] and Freddie Mac [FRE
Loading...
()
] both tumbled more than 10 percent.
Citigroup [C
Loading...
()
], however, eked out a 0.4-percent gain.
Boeing shares [BA
Loading...
()
] slipped as the aerospace giant and rival Airbus will find out this week which one won what may just be the biggest commercial trade dispute in modern history.
Pfizer shares [PFE
Loading...
()
] fell after the company agreed to pay a $2.3 billion to settle civil charges over the marketing of its withdrawn pain medication Bextra and other drugs.
Volume was light, with 1.38 billion shares changing hands on the New York Stock Exchange. Decliners outpaced advancers, 3 to 2.
Still to Come:
THURSDAY: Chain-store sales; weekly jobless claims; ISM services index
FRIDAY: August jobs report
Send comments to .
- These four sectors will be the next to lead the market.
- Zhu Zhu Pets are this year's must-have toy, fetching $40 or more on eBay.
- From the why-didn’t-I-think-of-that file, we present Jason Sadler, a man whose job is wearing T-shirts.
- It may be the most unusual guide to business you'll read.
- Shopping for a gadget hound? The choices can be baffling. Here are a few that should be a hit.
- "The Who" will be the halftime act for Super Bowl XLIV on Feb. 7 in Miami. Is the NFL behind the times?
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes