European Indexes

Symbol	Price		Change	%Change
DJIA	19833.68		-111.36	-0.56%
S& P 500	2249.92		-18.96	-0.84%
NASDAQ	5438.56		-48.89	-0.89%

US stock indexes fall as an afternoon slide accelerates

Banks led a broad slide in U.S. stocks Wednesday that more than wiped out gains from the day before.

After an early upward turn, the stock market veered into the red by midmorning, the losses accelerating as the day wore on. Basic materials companies, industrials, utilities and energy stocks were among the biggest decliners.

Trading was light ahead of the New Year' s Day holiday. Two stocks fell for every one that rose on the New York Stock Exchange.

" Volume is pretty weak, so there' s no aggressive selling taking place," said Bob Doll, chief equity strategist at Nuveen Asset Management. " It' s more sellers locking in some better gains than they thought they were going to get this year. Really good year, so letting a little go is just fine.

In a week featuring a dearth of major economic or company data, investors got some insight into the U.S. housing market.

A report from the National Association of Realtors found that fewer Americans signed contracts to buy homes in November. The NAR said its seasonally adjusted pending home sales index fell 2.5 percent to 107.3 percent, the lowest reading since the start of this year.

The slowdown marks a reversal for the housing market, as sales growth has been solid for the past year. Homebuilder stocks closed mostly lower, with William Lyon Homes losing the most. It fell 64 cents, or 3.2 percent, to $ 19.33.

Shares in oil and natural gas drilling companies also declined.

Markets overseas were mostly subdued.

In Europe, Germany' s DAX and France' s CAC 40 each ended essentially flat. Britain' s FTSE 100 posted a record-high close of 7,106.08, a gain of 0.5 percent. In Asia, Japan' s Nikkei 225 was flat. Australia' s S & P ASX 200 gained 1 percent. Kong' s Hang Seng index gained 0.8 percent. South Korea' s Kospi dropped 0.9 percent.

Benchmark US crude rose 16 cents to close at $ 54.06 a barrel in New York. It rose 88 cents on Tuesday. Brent crude, used to price international oils, climbed 13 cents to close at $ 56.22 a barrel in London. Before.

Among metals, the price of gold rose $2.10 to $1,140.90 an ounce. Silver added 5 cents to $16.04 an ounce. Copper fell 2 cents to $2.50 a pound.

 

 

Volume:	1,190.5M
Value:	$542.4M
Gainers/Losers:	258/149

 

 

Volume:	601.1M
Value:	$363.5M
Gainers/Losers:	188/174