Stocks sag as U.S. markets re-open

Philippines News.Net
Tuesday 2nd September, 2008

Traders were hesitant to push up stocks Tuesday, as markets re-opened after the Labor Day long weekend.

At the close of trading the Dow Jones Industrials were down 26.63 points or 0.23% at 11,516.92.

The Nasdaq Composite was off 18.28 points or 0.77% at 2,349.24.

The Standard and Poor's 500 was down 5.26 points or 0.41% at 1,277.56.

The U.S. dollar was sharply higher, particularly against sterling and the Australian dollar.

There are fears the UK is heading for a recession, inspired by a report from the OECD saying the British economy will enter recession in the second half of 2008. Meantime on Tuesday the Reserve Bank of Australia cut official interest rates from 7.25% to 7.0%. It was the first reduction in rates by the Australian central bank in seven years.

Around the New York close the euro was quoted at 1.4510. The British pound fell to 1.7815, and the Swiss franc to 1.1066.

The Australian dollar was changing hands at .8376, and the Japanese yen at 108.68. The Canadian dollar was quoted at 1.0682.

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