Monday saw telecommunications stocks receive a battering, following poor earnings news from giants such as Ericsson and Worldcom. Banking stocks were also affected, following the news that Argentina had closed their banks indefinitely, due to massive dollar denominated amounts of money being withdrawn by investors. News is that the Argentine economy has collapsed, with financial institutions closed since Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down by over 1%. The Nasdaq 100 fell by 2.5%.
Tuesday saw technology stocks hit and poor earnings news from companies like Exxon Mobil and DuPont. Telecommunication stocks also took another battering. This left the Dow Jones in the red for a second day, down by 0.5%. The Nasdaq 100 was down again for five days on the trot, this time by 2%. There was some positive news from analysts of the S&P 500 Index. Apparently, 277 of the 500 companies have released their quarterly results. 61% have exceeded earnings expectations, 25% have matched expectations and 14% have fallen below expectations.
Wednesday made it six for Nasdaq 100 losses as technology stocks were hit again. By close of play the index was down by 1.5%. The Dow Jones also ended down for a third day by over 0.5%. Poor economic data didn't help the markets with Durable Goods Orders in March falling by 0.6% where economists had expected a 0.1% rise. Worse than expected news on the number of new homes in March. These were expected to be 884,000 but the numbers actually fell by 3.1% to 878,000. The best news came from the Federal Reserve's Beige Book report on economic conditions. Apparently, retail sales were more or less the same, if not slightly higher. The manufacturing sector was steady and apparently inflation was under control.
Thursday was a better day for the US markets. Despite a poor start, both the Dow Jones and Nasdaq 100 managed to stay in the black. Technology stocks were back in favour, as were oil stocks due to the price of crude going up. The Dow Jones only just made it above the day's starting level, where as the Nasdaq 100 closed at the starting level. The news on economic data was mixed with unemployment claims falling, both for first time claimers and mature claimers. However, the situations vacant in March fell from the levels seen in January and February.
Friday was back into the red for the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq 100 despite the first quarter gross domestic product figures showing growth. Disney and Microsoft were the worst for the Dow Jones and technology and telecommunications stocks for the Nasdaq. By close of play, the Dow Jones was down by over 1% and the Nasdaq 100 down by almost 4%.