Wall Street down on housing woes, oil prices

Wall Street dropped at midday as crude oil prices continued to rise and housing sector problems continued to produce negative comments and bad news. At mid-session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.5 percent lower to 13,914.65, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.23 percent to 2,773.78 and the S&P 500 fell 0.52 percent to 1,540.7. House builders were lower, while banks and some carmakers also saw declines.

Most Asia-Pacific equities markets were lower on Tuesday on renewed concerns that the US housing slump and subprime mortgage troubles will slow the US economy. The main exceptions to widespread declines came in Taiwan, where the Taiex index added 0.78 percent to 9,592.47, and from the Shanghai Composite, which gained 1.03 percent to 6,092.06. India’s Sensex dropped 0.04 percent to 19,051.86. In Australia, the Sydney Ordinaries fell 0.6 percent to 6,711.3 while the S&P/ASX200 was down 0.7 percent to 6,692. The Straits Times index was 1.33 percent lower in Singapore, while in South Korea the Kospi index dropped 1.46 percent to 2,005.76. In Hong Kong, meanwhile, the Hang Seng index fell 1.98 percent to 28,954.55.

Tokyo’s markets were lower on the session. The Nikkei 225 was down 1.27 percent to 17,137.92 and the Topix index was 1.94 percent lower to 1,625.25, while the Mothers market dropped 3.98 percent to 833.11.
The oil sector saw gains while banks, the consumer finance sector, and real estate all saw declines.

Most equities markets in Europe were lower, but Madrid’s IBEX was up as it added 0.61 percent to 15,279.70. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was 0.77 percent lower to 1,574.68. The Dax dropped 0.09 percent to 7,962.64 in Frankfurt while the Paris CAC-40 fell 0.57 percent to 5,774.36. Utilities gained for a second day, and the oil sector was higher. Carmakers were mixed, while the steel and telecommunications sectors were lower.

London’s markets were lower. The FTSE 100 was down 0.45 percent to 6,614.3 while the FTSE 250 fell 0.64 percent to 11,366.2. The oil sector was mixed. Banks also saw mixed results, while miners and the chemicals sector saw losses.

Story link: Wall Street down on housing woes, oil prices