There was good news on the unemployment front this week. The Department of Labor’s weekly unemployment claims report (which you can read here) reported a 16,000 claim decrease for the week ending September 25th.
Unfortunately, the good news from the Labor Department did not do enough to allay investor’s fears of a continued weakness in the global economy. Evidence of this persistent concern is the Dow Jones Industrial Average which lost 46.85 points today and closed at 10,788.43. The Nasdaq fell 7.94 points to 2,368.62 and the S&P 500 dropped 3.53 points to 1,141.20.
European markets were down again on Thursday while Asian markets were mixed. The cost to bail out Anglo Irish Bank (which may be restructured into two banks) in a “worst case scenario” was announced by the Central Bank of Ireland today. The price tag was $46 billion (34 billion Euros). Also causing some concern for European and U.S. investors was the much anticipated Moody’s downgrade of Spain’s debt from Aaa to Aa1.
Stocks in the news: Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc (NYSE: POT), Nokia Oyj (NYSE: NOK), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ).
