U.S. stocks in big slide, gold price rises | WPN World People News

Continued uncertainty about the eurozone debt problems and renewed concerns about the state of the U.S. economy sent stocks tumbling Tuesday.

The Dow Jones was down more than 200 points at the close, while the Nasdaq and Standard and Poor's 500 each lost more than 2% of their value. The losses wiped out the gains of a day earlier.

Gold, which rises on fear and uncertainty, rose $50.70 an ounce to $1,701.00.

The U.S. dollar which also feeds on fear was higher Tuesday.

“It’s going to be a slow recovery,” Mark Bronzo, who helps manage $23 billion at Security Global Investors in Irvington, New York, told Bloomberg in a telephone interview. “The economic data shows that we’re in a bottoming process. UPS gave some cautious commentary concerning global growth. In addition, we’re still slave to the events in Europe.”

At the close of trading Tuesday the Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 207.00 points or 1.74% to 11,706.62.

The Nasdaq Composite was down 61.02 points or 2.26% at 2,638.42.

The Standard and Poor's 500 lost 25.14 points or 2.00% to 1,229.05.

Consumer confidence surprisingly fell in October, to the lowest level in more than two-and-a-half years. Home prices in twenty U.S. cities fell more than expected in August adding to the dismay.

“It’s hard to get excited in this environment,” Timothy Ghriskey, who oversees $2 billion as chief investment officer of Solaris Group LLC in Bedford Hills, New York, said in a telephone interview with Bloomberg. “You have very anemic growth and you have a big question mark about the debt situation in Europe.”

The U.S. dollar softened on currency markets. Around the New York close Tuesday the euro was quoted at 1.3901.

The British pound softened to 1.5999. The Australian dollar edged down to 1.0428, while the New Zealand dollar fell sharply to 0.7956. The Canadian dollar softened down to 1.0158.

The Swiss franc and Japanese yen, which also rise in times of uncertainty, were higher at 0.8781 and 75.95 respectively.

Source: Europe News.Net