|
Oil touched $100 per barrel Wednesday amid violence in Nigeria, Africa's leading oil producer, and a weaker U.S. dollar and concerns about a tightening of supplies. Gold prices rose to a near 30-year record as oil climbed.
Wall Street has been eyeing the December jobs report due Friday. The Labor Department report should help indicate whether the solid job market that existed last year can continue in 2008 and help maintain consumer spending.
A slowdown among consumers fearful of losing their jobs would be regarded as a heavy blow to the economy as more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity is tied to consumer spending. The rise in commodities prices, including the eventual uptick in gasoline following the spikes in oil, makes some investors nervous about the ability of consumers to keep spending.
Such concerns weighed on stocks Wednesday and sent each of the major indexes down by more than 1 percent. The Dow Jones industrials lost more than 220 points.
Dow futures on Thursday fell 31, or 0.24 percent, to 13,105.
Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 1.80, or 0.12 percent, to 1,456.60, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 5.75, or 0.28 percent, to 2,065.25.
[to top of second column]
 |
 Light, sweet crude rose 11 cents to $99.73 per barrel in premarket electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Bonds showed little change. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which trades opposite its price, stood unchanged at 3.89 percent from late Wednesday. The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices rose.
Among the other readings set to arrive Thursday, the major automakers release their December sales figures. Also, home goods retailer Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. and seed company Monsanto Co. report their quarterly financial results.
Overseas, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.62 percent, Germany's DAX index fell 0.77 percent, and France's CAC-40 fell 0.53 percent. Markets in Japan were closed for a bank holiday.
___
On the Net:
New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com/
Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com/
[Associated Press; By TIM PARADIS]
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed. |
