Related Articles
Top Stories
May 27 2012 11:21
There's a price war raging between South Africa's cellphone networks after Cell C lowered the rates of its prepaid calls by more than 34%.
May 28 2012 07:53
The City of Cape Town has spent R175m running the Myciti bus service since the Soccer World Cup compared to an income of R35m, a report says.
May 27 2012 13:09
The oversupply of golf estates has claimed another victim.
New York - US stock markets slumped early on Thursday as a slew of economic data further dampened hopes for a rapid exit from recession in the world's largest economy.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average of 30 blue-chip stocks fell 99.75 points (0.96%) to 10 266.44 at 2:15pm, threatening a seven-day winning streak.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index fell 21.32 points (0.95%) to 2 228.52 while the broad-market S&P 500 index slipped 11.12 points (1.02%) to 1 084.05.
Before the opening bell investors were worried by news that manufacturing had slumped in New York and industrial production across the country rose only modestly last month.
"Going forward, we anticipate some slowdown in manufacturing activity as the inventory cycle wears off and output growth converges to the pace of demand growth," said Aneta Markowska of Societe Generale.
Investors were also spooked by news that inflation, measured by producer prices, fell 2.8% in June versus the same month a year before.
The decline was read by many as a sign of the slow recovery and possible deflation.
"The recent downtrend in core inflation has been troublesome," said analysts at Deutsche Bank.
The data overshadowed news that JPMorgan Chase saw a net profit of $4.8bn in the second quarter, up nearly 80% from the same period last year.
- AFP