| Europe's Debt Crisis Overshadows Enthusiasm Surrounding Facebook's Record Setting IPO |
| May-18-2012 |
| Keywords: stocks slump, facebook ipo, yields lower, european debt |
Not even the hype surrounding Facebook's market debut was enough to quiet the bears on Wall Street.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 73 points. The S&P 500 dipped 10 points, closing back below the 1,300 level. And the Nasdaq Composite dropped 35 points.
The Dow and broader S&P 500 are both down for the past six trading sessions, and have bleed billions in market cap over the past three weeks. The Dow ended this week off about 3.5%. The S&P 500 down more than 4%, while the Nasdaq Composite took the biggest hit, falling more than 5% on the week. Those losses amounting to the worst weekly performances by the three major US stock indexes since November of last year.
The losses driven by a growing fear that Greece's political and financial instability will spread throughout the greater European Union.
Anxiety over Europe's debt crisis amplified by Moody's Investors Service slashing the credit rating of 16 Spanish banks after the closing bell on Thursday.
Traders were also keeping a close eye on the Nasdaq Stock Market, where Facebook made its debut. The first trade in the social network was at $42.05 a share, up 10.5% from its IPO price of $38. However underwriters stepped in to support the social networking site when it appeared the hype surrounding the stock was fading. By the end of trading today, the stock logged a modest .6% gain, but set a record for any IPO with a market value in the neighborhood of $104 billion.
Commodities markets were mixed on the day. Crude oil prices fell for a sixth straight session, ending at a 6-1/2 month low of $91.48 a barrel.
Safe haven buying ahead of this weekend's G8 summit at Camp David helped gold prices finish up more than 1% on the day, closing at $1,592 an ounce.
And while prices declined on the 10-year Treasury note today, the yield on the benchmark note finished the week lower, logging the 10th straight weekly decline, after falling to a record low of less than 1.7 percent on Thursday. |
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Posted by Lou Dobbs Staff at 5:00 PM Email to a friend |
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