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Date published: 11/21/2009
AP Business Writers
NEW YORK --The stock market ended a down week with light selling as investors grew uneasy about a rising dollar and spiking demand for the safest government debt.After two strong weeks, investors tried unsuccessfully to extend the market's rally after major stock indexes closed at 13-month highs on Tuesday. Disappointing reports on housing and worries about flagging demand at technology companies sapped strength from the market's eight-month rally. The Dow Jones industrial average ended the week with a 0.5 percent gain, but broader indexes slid. Stocks fell for the third straight day yesterday as a disappointing earnings report from computer maker Dell Inc. weighed on technology shares. The Nasdaq composite index, with a big representation of tech stocks, logged the weakest performance of the major indicators for the week. Demand for safe havens rose Thursday and again yesterday following Dell's report and as European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said the ECB plans to start reining in some of its stimulus programs. Investors seeking safety pushed into the dollar and other investments seen as being stable such as short-term Treasurys. The yield on the three-month T-bill, which moves opposite its price, was flat at 0.02 percent from late Thursday. Yields briefly turned negative Thursday as investors seeking to pad their portfolios with safe investments before the end of the year were willing to accept negative returns. "Investors seem to need a constant reassurance with where we are in the economic recovery," said Brett D'Arcy, chief investment officer at CBIZ Wealth Management Group in San Diego. "We just haven't gotten it in the past few days." The Dow slipped 14.28, or 0.1 percent, to 10,318.16. The Dow fell 119 points, or 1.1 percent, in the final three days of the week. It ended the week up 0.5 percent because of steep gains Monday following an improvement in retail sales. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 3.52, or 0.3 percent, to 1,091.38, while the Nasdaq fell 10.78, or 0.5 percent, to 2,146.04. For the week, the S&P 500 index fell 0.2 percent and the Nasdaq lost 1 percent. For November, those indexes are each up about 5 percent, while the Dow is up about 6 percent. The ICE Futures US dollar index, which measures the dollar against other major currencies, rose 0.4 percent. The stronger dollar can hurt commodities prices and also sales of U.S. exporters, whose goods become more expensive overseas when the dollar rises. Demand for longer-term Treasurys fell, pushing yields higher. The yield on the benchmark 10-year note rose to 3.37 percent from 3.34 percent. Reports Wednesday and Thursday showing a drop in housing starts and a jump in mortgage delinquencies upended an advance that had been all but unbroken in November. Those figures brought worries that an economic recovery will be slow and bumpy. Concerns about the pace of a recovery have dogged the market's eight-month rally but with the nation's unemployment rate now above 10 percent for the first time in 26 years and new worries about housing, some analysts say investors have raced too far ahead of a recovery in the economy.
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