WORLD> America
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WORLD> America
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Stocks fluctuate as economic worries dog investors
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-10-09 23:56 NEW YORK - Stocks fluctuated Thursday as Wall Street weighed the prospects for the economy after IBM Corp. affirmed its profit forecast and investors hoped the government might take ownership stakes in banks to help stabilize the financial industry.
But declines in some blue chip names like General Motors Corp. weighed on the markets and hurt the Dow Jones industrial average. Broader market gauges were mixed. Investors looked to recover from near-panic selling that cascaded through global markets in the past week. Stocks around the world moved mostly higher one day after the Federal Reserve and other leading central banks cut interest rates to help unclog the credit markets and stimulate the global economy. There's some hope by investors that Wall Street is getting closer to finding a bottom after the worst six-day rout for the Standard & Poor's 500 index since 1987. On Wednesday, the Dow gave up 189 points to close at 9,258.10 - and was down about 35 percent from its high of 14,164.53 reached exactly one year ago. "I think the base driver today is that we're oversold," said Arthur Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co. "You can't do that too long before things turn around, and I think the bottom of this market gets put in this week." While a rate cut can take up to a year to work its way through the economy, the move was aimed as a boost to investor sentiment. Perhaps adding to that, there were some signs Thursday that corporate earnings might come in better than expected. IBM, one of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow industrials, posted third-quarter results that beat forecasts and affirmed its full-year earnings forecast. Investors also appeared cheered by a plan being considered by the Bush administration to invest in hobbled US banks as a way to stabilize the financial sector. An administration official, who asked not to be identified because no decision has been made, said the $700 billion rescue package passed by Congress last week allows the Treasury Department to inject fresh capital into financial institutions and obtain ownership shares in return. |
