Kitsap Business and Economy

Dow now at 9,783, down 7 points.

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks slipped Thursday as a surprise drop in unemployment claims failed to draw buyers into a market that has risen in eight of the past nine days.
Improvements in housing and manufacturing in the mid-Atlantic region also weren’t enough to keep the market from making a modest retreat. Analysts have long been expecting the market to take a break from its upward march, which has now driven the Standard & Poor’s 500 index up 58 percent from a 12-year low in early March.
“This market has become kind of saturated with good news,” said Jeff Kleintop, chief market strategist at LPL Financial.
The Labor Department said workers filing for jobless claims for the first time dipped to 545,000 last week from an upwardly revised 557,000 the previous week. Economists polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting claims to rise.
It was the lowest level of new claims since early July, indicating job cuts could be easing. However, those continuing to file for claims increased to 6.2 million, slightly above analysts’ forecasts. Many economists consider unemployment to be the biggest obstacle to a rebound in the economy so signs of improvement are welcome for investors.
Separately, the Commerce Department said housing starts increased in August to their highest level in nine months amid a jump in apartment building. Housing starts rose 1.5 percent to an annual rate of 598,000 units last month, just below the pace economists had forecast.
In another positive sign, the Philadelphia Fed’s index of regional manufacturing conditions rose to 14.1 in September from 4.2 in August. The latest figure is the highest since June 2007 and the second straight positive reading. But a drop in new orders from August worried some investors.
David Chalupnik, head of equities at First American Funds, said the unemployment figures are encouraging for a recovery but that stocks will still need a break before moving significantly higher again. “Eventually the market does need to take a breather,” he said.
In early afternoon trading, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 25.77, or 0.3 percent, to 9,765.94. On Wednesday, the Dow jumped 108 points to a high for the year.
The S&P 500 index slipped 6.01, or 0.6 percent, to 1,062.75, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 1.29, or 0.1 percent, to 2,131.86.
Bond prices were mixed. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 3.44 percent from 3.48 percent late Wednesday.
The dollar was mixed against other currencies, while gold prices fell.
Crude oil fell 20 cents to $72.31 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Three stocks fell for every two that rose on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 819.4 million shares compared with 803.7 million shares traded at the same point Wednesday.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 3.95, or 0.6 percent, to 613.43.
Overseas, Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.8 percent, Germany’s DAX index gained 0.5 percent, and France’s CAC-40 rose 0.6 percent. Japan’s Nikkei stock average rose 1.7 percent.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 17th, 2009 at 10:19 am by Rachel Pritchett and is filed under Uncatagorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.