Stocks Move Sharply Lower

Shawshank, VA 9/22/2011 (PennyPayDay) – Stocks moved sharply lower at the start of trading on Thursday, extending the substantial downward move seen in the previous session. The major averages all slid firmly into negative territory, with the Dow dropping to its lowest intraday level in a month.

In the past few minutes, the major averages have seen some further downside, hitting new lows for the young session. The Dow is down 356.46 points or 3.2 percent at 10,768.38, the Nasdaq is down 76.15 points or 3 percent at 2,462.04 and the S&P 500 is down 35.60 points or 3.1 percent at 1,131.16.

The initial weakness on Wall Street reflects renewed concerns about the global economic outlook following Wednesday's troubling commentary from the Federal Reserve as well as some disappointing economic data.

In its policy statement released yesterday, the Fed noted that economic growth remains slow and warned that there are significant downside risks to the economic outlook.

As part of its efforts to boost the sluggish economy, the central bank announced plans to replace short-term securities in its bond portfolio with longer-term securities. The Fed said the move should put downward pressure on longer-term interest rates.

However, economists were largely skeptical regarding the likely impact of the move, with Paul Ashworth, Chief U.S. Economist at Capital Economics, noting, "The cost of borrowing simply isn't the problem."

Disappointing Chinese manufacturing data has also generated some selling pressure along with a report showing a contraction in business activity in Europe.

Additionally, the U.S. Labor Department recently released a report showing that initial jobless claims decreased in the week ended September 17th but still came in above economist estimates.

The report said jobless claims fell to 423,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 432,000, while economists had been expecting claims to fall to 420,000 from the 428,000 originally reported for the previous week.

In corporate news, delivery giant FedEx (FDX) reported first quarter earnings that increased in line with analyst estimates but also lowered its full year earnings guidance.

With traders expressing concerns about the outlook for global demand, resource stocks are turning in some of the market's worst performances in early trading. Gold stocks are posting particularly steep losses amid a sharp drop by the price of the precious metal.

Technology stocks have also come under considerable selling pressure, with computer hardware, networking, and semiconductor stocks posting steep losses. Significant weakness is also visible among housing, transportation, and banking stocks.

Most of the other major sectors have also shown notable moves to the downside in early trading amid a broad based sell-off.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region saw significant selling pressure following the overnight sell-off on Wall Street. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index tumbled by 2.1 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index plunged by 4.9 percent.

The major European markets are also showing substantial moves to the downside on the day. The French CAC 40 Index has plummeted by 5.1 percent, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the German DAX Index are down by 4.4 percent and 3.9 percent, respectively.

In the bond market, treasuries have moved sharply higher amid the continued weakness on Wall Street. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is down by 9.9 basis points at 1.776 percent after hitting a record intraday low of 1.754 percent.

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