 A general view of the main trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange during the closing moments of the trading session in New York Feb. 27, 2007. U.S. stocks plummeted on Tuesday, sending the benchmark S&P 500 index to its biggest one-day slide in more than 3-1/2 years as a sell-off in China's equity market fanned worries that stock valuations there are too high and some data indicated U.S. economic growth may slow. Wall Street closed modestly lower Thursday after a sharp plunge in the early trading. In the morning trading, Wall Street declined sharply with the Dow average dropping more than 200 points following overseas plunge in Asian and European markets. After a fast decline, Wall Street recovered on several positive economic reports. The Institute for Supply Management said Thursday that its manufacturing index registered 52.3 in February, above the January reading of 49.3 and Wall Street's expectation of 50. The Commerce Department also reported Thursday that personal incomes rose by 1 percent in January while consumer spending was up by 0.5 percent. The income advance was the largest since a 1.3 percent jump in January 2006 and both the income and spending gains were bigger than had been expected. The Dow Jones average fell 34.29, or 0.28 percent, to 12,234.34.The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 3.65, or 0.26 percent, to 1,403.17 while the technology-dominated Nasdaq composite index finished down 11.94, or 0.49 percent, at 2,404.21. Wall Street rebounded Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the Fed expects "moderate growth" this year. Bernanke told Congress that the administration and federal regulators are closely monitoring financial markets in the wake of the biggest sell-off in stock prices in more than five years but so far the markets appear to be "working well." Wall Street plunged more than 3 percent Tuesday as a heavy sell-off in China's stock markets pushed down the global equity dominos. 2007-03-02 |
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