On Wall Street, stock prices weakened for the fourth consecutive day on Friday, marking the largest decline in the past six weeks due to the slowing growth of the U.S. economy.
The Dow Jones index fell by 16 points, or 0.16 percent, to 10,303 points, while the S&P 500 dropped by 0.40 percent to 1,079 points, and the Nasdaq index decreased by 0.77 percent to 2,173 points. It was reported yesterday that retail sales in July increased by 0.4 percent, which is less than the expected 0.5 percent, indicating that the growth of the U.S. economy is slowing. A slightly better report came from the consumer sentiment index compiled by Reuters and the University of Michigan. This index rose from 67.8 to 69.6 points in August, but still shows that Americans are cautious about spending. As a result, stock prices of retail chains fell yesterday, with the S&P index for that sector declining by 1.4 percent.
Among the biggest losers were the stocks of Nordstrom and J.C. Penney, with losses of 7.2 and 4.7 percent, respectively, after these retail companies disappointed with their forecasts for future business results. “Yesterday continued a trend of worse macroeconomic data than expected, and investors have been cautious since mid-week when the Fed warned of a weakening recovery. It is clear that we are facing a longer period of slow economic growth,” says Steven Baffico, director at Claymore Securities. The caution of investors is indicated by the thin trading volume.
