US stocks end week with big losses

Financial stocks fared the worst in the past week, followed by material and energy companies

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/179812.html

US stock markets have suffered hefty losses and closed lower at the end of the week amid renewed concerns about the worsening debt crisis in the euro zone।

On Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 100 points, or 0.8 percent, to close at 12,596. The S&P 500 fell 11 points, or 0.8 percent, to 1,338. The NASDAQ lost 35 points, or 1.2 percent, to 2,828, marking the second straight week of big losses, Bloomberg Businessweek reported.

Financial stocks fared the worst in the past week, followed by material and energy companies. Both Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped two percent on Friday.

Companies in the energy sector were among the hardest hit in May. Exxon Mobil Corp. lost eight percent so far this month, according to the report.

Analysts believe recurrent concerns over Europe's financial crisis, the coming end of a supportive Federal Reserve policy as well as slowed growth worldwide were the main causes of the brewing volatility in financial markets in the US.

More than two stocks fell for every one that rose on the New York Stock Exchange On Friday. Trading volume was 3.5 billion shares.

Worries over Europe, however, pushed the US dollar up nearly one percent on Friday and erased the week's gains in the stock market.

Stock markets in countries that use the euro lurched after the European Union warned the debts of Greece, the Republic of Ireland and Portugal will be bigger than anticipated.