The weak US service sector and retail sales data put a downward pressure on American Express shares and Costco stocks and on the market in whole, having strengthened nervousness ahead the US employment data release on Friday. According to the trading results, DJIA index fell by 86.53 points or by 0.83% and closed at 10366.15 points. Standard & Poor\'s 500 moved down by 9.32 points or by 0.84% to 1099.92 points, while technological Nasdaq Composite index ticked down by 11.89 points or by 0.54% and closed at 2173.14 points.
Reports that Institute for Supply Management non-industrial index decreased to 48.7 in November against 50.6 in October set the tone for Thursday’s deals. A reading below 50 signals about contraction in this sector. Investors’ mood went bad even more after it became known that the US matched retail sales in November turned out to be lower forecasts. The retail sales sector demonstrates a small growth, compared to the previous year and all these are with consideration of sharp sales decline in 2008. This statistics negatively affected the stock market during the whole session although the most active sales were at the end of the trading. The falling leaders became American Express shares that slid by 2.17 USD or by 5.3% to 38.87 USD because business model of this company are built on the consumer spending trends. On Thursday, the estimation of these trends especially hardly impacted the shares of Costco Wholesale, Macy\'s, Target and other retail companies which reported about weaker than it was expected matched sales in November. Costco shares quotations slumped by 1.85 USD or by 3% to 59.02 USD, Macy\'s tumbled by 49 cents or by 3% to 15.81 USD, Target stocks dropped by 1.37 USD or by 2.9% to 46.35 USD.
Best regards,
analyst: V.Donin.
