Wall Street Struggles

March 4, 2008

(Long Island, N.Y.) Wall Street closed trading yesterday negatively mixed after highly optimistic gains last week which saw the market elevate its total investor activity level only to be pulled back by weak economic numbers coming out of the Labor and Commerce Department on Monday.

The Dow Jones Industrial was down 7.49 points or a 0.06 percent change from the previous days trading to finish with 12258.90 points. The NASDAQ composites also declined by 12.88 points which is a 0.57 percent change to settle at 2258.60. Meanwhile, the Standard and Poor 500 gained weakly after closing down with a 0.71 point increase from Friday’s trading to end with 1331.34 points which is a 0.05 percent positive move.

Key economic figures which financial experts hoped to have given the market a boost came out gloomy for Wall Street as the Commerce Department announced a 1.7 percent decrease; a 14 year low in total construction spending for the month of January, a figure which further delivers a blow to an already weakened housing industry.

Also on Monday, The Institute for Supply Management’s index of U.S. manufacturing activity reported a 48.3 level which surpasses expert’s expectations at 48.1.

Peter Cardillo who is the chief market economist at the New York-based brokerage house Avalon Partners Inc said “The two economic numbers that came out today were still rather on the negative side and they point to further weakness in economic activity,”

The market struggled as investors decided to decline market activity after the figures came in which coincides with meteoric Oil price increases at New York Mercantile Trading. Also last week, the Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke undermined the threat of inflation and a sparkling possibility of stagflation in the US economy, a sentiment many experts disagree. “It didn’t play well the first time, and it’s not playing well the second time, the truth is, the price for everything, except for maybe soft goods and electronics, is going up,” said a market insider referring to Bernanke’s comments.

Posted by News LI Editor · Edited by Brianna - Filed Under Money