The stock markets in the United States declined due to the disappointing sales results on Black Friday and manufacturing data in China.
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The equities of retailers in the S&P 500 index declined that most in one month as sales results on Black Friday were lower-than-expected.
In a telephone interview with Bloomberg, Gene Peroni, a fund manager at Advisors Asser Management commented, “There’s a lot of rotation here in the market right now. Even with oil weak, the market is holding up pretty well. We’re just going through an intermediate consolidation.”
China’s official manufacturing index declined to 50.3 points, below the 50.5 expected by economists in November. A separate reading from HSBC Holdings plc (ADR) (NYSE:HSBC) (LON:HSBA) and Markit Economics showed that China’s manufacturing was at 50 points, the borderline between contraction and expansion.
[drizzle]Bill Schultz, chief investment officer at McQueen Ball & Associates said, “Chinese data is starting to give investors a pause about global growth.” He added, “If we can stabilize oil here, that would be a positive for the market.”
On the other hand, the ISM manufacturing index in the United States slightly declined from 59 to 58.7 points in October, the second-strongest level since April 2011.
Investors are closely monitoring other economic data this week to evaluate the strength of the economy. The Department of Labor is scheduled to release its report regarding the U.S. labor market on Friday.
U.S. Markets
- Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) – 17,776.93 (-0.29%)
- S&P 500- 2,053.54 (-0.63%)
- NASDAQ- 4,727.35 (-1.35%)
- Russell 2000- 1,156.64 (-1.41%)
European Markets
- EURO STOXX 50 Price EUR- 3,232. 91 (-0.55%)
- FTSE 100 Index- 6,656.37 (-0.99%)
- Deutsche Borse AG German Stock Index DAX- 9,963.51 (-0.17%)
Asia-Pacific Markets
- Nikkei 225- 17,590.10(+0.75%)
- Hong Kong Hang Seng Index- 23.367.45 (-2.58%)
- Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 Index- 2,819.81 (+0.39%)
Stocks in Focus
The stock price of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) decline nearly 5% during the early morning trading, but managed to regained some of its losses. The stock closed $115.07 per share, down by over 3% today. John Manley, chief equity strategist at Wells Fargo Fund Management commented, “Being as big and visible as it is, some people use Apple as a proxy for worldwide consumer technology. Little hiccups can be translated into rather large spasms from time to time.”
Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) also suffered more than 3% decline to $75.10 per share. Last week, the social network giant’s CFO David Wehner sold all of his 11,563 Class A shares in the company. Other Facebook executives also dump some of their shares in the company.
GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME) declined more than 5% to $35.83 per share. The company’s stock was among the hardest hit following the post-Thanksgiving holiday sales. The company announced that it would extend its Cyber Monday deals until December 7.
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