Dow Jones unable to hold onto earlier gains

The New York equities markets could not hold on to gains from the beginning of the week as profit-taking took over later on. Friday’s results saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average lose 0.5 percent on the day to 10,578.03, while the Nasdaq lost 0.6 percent to 2,177.91 and the S&P 500 declined by 0.8 percent to 1,226,42.

These results brought the Dow to a loss of 0.8 percent for the week, as the Nasdaq fell 0.3 percent on the week and the S&P declined by 0.6 percent. The retail sector had a bad week on a group of less-than-glowing July sales results.

While Wal-Mart claimed a rise in sales of over 4 percent others, such as The Gap and Nordstrom reported declines in sales. Wal-Mart gained 0.3 percent on the week to $49.52, but The Gap lost 2.7 percent to $20.53 and Nordstrom fell 11 percent this week to $32.48 after a gain of over 50 percent in the past year.

The mixed results made some analysts ask if it was high oil prices that had started to chip away at the consumer’s disposable income. The automobile manufacturing sector was also mixed this week, despite reported improvements in sales figures in July from the likes of DaimlerChrysler, Ford, and General Motors.

DaimlerChrysler ended the week up by 2.1 percent to $49.45, but Ford lost 2.2 percent to $10.50 and GM fell by 2.9 percent for the week to $35.77. In a huge gain, Reebok saw its shares gain 32.5 percent in value to $56.67 on the announcement that German company Adidas has agreed to purchase the sporting goods company for $3.8 billion to create the second-biggest sporting goods group in the world.

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