Welcome | Sign In
ECommerceTimes.com
Wall Street

Oil Prices Spike, Stocks Plummet

Print Version
E-Mail Article
Reprints
Oil Prices Spike, Stocks Plummet

Oil price fears combined with warnings from the technology sector, blue chip General Motors and the release of June employment data on Friday morning to make the day a train wreck on Wall Street.


Listen to Your Customers, Grow Your Bottom Line.
Learn how loyal customers can be your best advocates for evangelizing your products and brand, while helping you to dramatically gain new business. Download "Customer Experience Management: Engaging Loyal Customers to Evangelize Your Brand."

Investor worry that the oil supply to the United States could be disrupted heading into the long holiday weekend reverberated on Wall Street Thursday, when stocks went sharply lower.

Oil prices were up more than 3 percent Thursday after gaining 4 percent on Wednesday when the U.S. announced a surprising drop in stockpiles.

The gains were attributed to fears of terrorist attacks heading into the July 4th holiday.

Oil price fears combined with warnings from the technology sector, blue chip General Motors (NYSE: GM) and the release of June employment data on Friday morning to make the day a train wreck on Wall Street.

Market Numbers

The Dow plunged 101.32, or just under 1 percent, closing at 10,334.16.

The Nasdaq posted an even bigger proportional loss, shedding 32.24, or 1.5 percent, to close at 2,015.55.

The S&P was lower by 1 percent, ending the day down 11.86 points to 1,128.98.

Reading Tea Leaves

Stocks, which had seen two days of modest gains leading up to the Fed's interest rate decision on Wednesday, were pushed lower by earnings warnings.

Computer memory maker Emulex lost 18 percent after it said its current quarter would disappoint because of "tepid" demand.

Yahoo! was off 5 percent after a downgrade from Smith Barney.

GM shares fell almost 3 percent after it said June sales in the U.S. were 15 percent lower than a year ago.

Federal Open Market Committee Meeting

Also fueling the fire were the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting that resulted in a quarter-point hike in interest rates.

The minutes showed disagreement among committee members about whether to remove language referring to a "measured" approach, leading to speculation that more dramatic rate hikes remain on the table.

That possibility boosted U.S. Treasury bonds, which traded slightly higher Thursday.


Print Version E-Mail Article Reprints More by ECT News Business Desk


More by ECT News Business Desk

HP, Novell Simplify Open-Source License Process
February 18, 2006
While ideally suited for the HP BladeSystem, the bundle is available across the entire HP ProLiant product line and can be applied on multiple servers as well. A single point of contact is provided for hardware and operating systems, via which customers can acquire HP Systems Insight Manager software for integrated management.
Yahoo News to Provide Video From CNN.com, ABC News
August 01, 2005
"Video content is becoming an increasingly important component of the online news experience for Yahoo News users, and these relationships are an important step in expanding the video content on our site," Scott Moore, vice president of content operations for Yahoo, said.
EA Gets Rights for 'Lord of the Rings' Games
July 27, 2005
With the new games, fans will be able to step into a world that "looks like the films, but experience characters, environments and battles that have been inspired by the books," said a statement released by EA this week.
Don't miss a story -- sign up for our FREE e-mail newsletters and view the latest headlines at a glance.
Tech News Flash [ View Sample ]
E-Commerce Minute [ View Sample ]
ECT News Network Weekly Newsletter [ View Sample ]
Shortcuts
ECT News Network Information
Reader Services
Corporate
ECT News Network