Stocks retreat on Fed tidings

Posted on Aug 2, 2012 in Business | 0 comments

U.S. stock indexes flipped around Wednesday, heading lower after the Federal Reserve left its monetary policies unchanged.

Investors who had been anticipating a new stimulus measure retreated after the Fed”s late-afternoon announcement.

Earlier, investors shrugged off disappointing manufacturing data from Europe and Asia.

Markit reported a sharp slowdown in Europe”s manufacturing sector, while a decline in exports weighed on Asian factories in July.

An Automatic Data Processing Inc. report countered some of the negative news, reporting a gain of 163,000 jobs added to the U.S. economy in July, more than expected.

By close of trading on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 32.55 points, or 0.25 percent, to 12,976.13. The Standard and Poor”s 500 index shed 4 points, or 0.29 percent, to 1,375.32. Tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index dropped 19.31 points, 0.66 percent, to 2,920.21.

On the New York Stock Exchange, 1,139 stocks advanced and 1,883 declined on a volume of 4.2 billion shares traded.

The benchmark 10-year treasury note fell 16/32 to yield 1.525 percent.

The euro rose to $1.2224 from Tuesday”s $1.2304. Against the yen, the dollar rose to 78.44 yen from 78.12 yen.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index gave up 0.61 percent, 53.21, to 8,641.85.

In London, the FTSE 100 index added 1.38 percent, 77.54, to 5,712.82.

Copyright 2012 by United Press International