8-1-11

By LGR Financial News Staff

U.S. stocks were down after the closing bell on Monday, as concerns about weak manufacturing data and worries that ratings firms could still downgrade the U.S. government’s credit overpowered investor relief about a debt-ceiling deal, damped investor confidence.

At the close of U.S. trade today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had lost 110 points, or 0.9%, to 12033, in afternoon trading. Earlier, it briefly fell below 12,000 for the first time since late June. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index also fell 14 points, or 1.2%, to 1278 recently, with all sectors except telecommunications losing ground. The Nasdaq Composite lost 35 points, or 1.3%, to 2721.

European stock markets also closed lower today. France’s CAC 40 was down 2.27%; Germany’s DAX shed 2.86%; Britain’s FTSE 100 declined 0.70%; and the EURO STOXX 50 fell 2.88%.

The price of gold edged up less than $1 to trade at $1,627.28 an ounce.

Wall Street Analysis are saying  stocks took a plunge today after industry data showed that the U.S. ISM manufacturing PMI fell more-than-expected to 50.9 last month from 55.3 in the preceding month, renewing worries about the overall state of the U.S. economy.

Investors were also still fretting over the state of the U.S. debt-ceiling negotiations, in which the House and Senate were expected to vote on the weekend plan during the afternoon. Details of this weekend’s debt pact have some investors worrying that the deal wouldn’t be enough to avoid the threat of ratings downgrades. There also was concern that the length of the talks and severity of recent market fluctuations were beginning to have a long-term impact on the wider economy.

“Clearly what’s going on in D.C. is affecting the overall economy,” Gary Flam, portfolio manager at Los Angeles-based Bel Air Investment Advisors told the Wall Street Journal. “The longer [the debt debates] go on, the more headwinds we face. The bulls’ argument was [that] you’ll have acceleration in the economy in the second half. That’s being called in to question now.”

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• Dow stumbles on weak manufacturing report (sfgate.com)
• Stocks turn lower on weak manufacturing report (money.cnn.com)