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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowInvestors are sending stocks lower as another tumble in oil prices undermines the case for an economic recovery.
Major stock market indexes skidded about 2 percent today as crude dropped for the fifth straight day, the latest indicator that investors think demand for energy and basic materials will remain soft. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 161 points.
Trading volume remained thin amid a dearth of news about the economy and as investors await the beginning of the second-quarter earnings season, which starts tomorrow with aluminum maker and Dow component Alcoa Inc.
Stocks have drifted lower in recent days as the market’s confidence about the economy took hits from a poor jobs report for June, waning consumer confidence and plunging commodities prices.
That stoked fears that the market might have gotten ahead of itself in March and April, when investors sent stocks soaring in hopes that a nearly two-year-long recession would end some time this year. The next guideposts for the market will be the forecasts companies give during earnings reports about how business conditions look for the rest of the year.
“Uncertainty has crept back into the picture,” said Carl Beck, partner at Harris Financial Group. “We started to get some data that put a damper on some of the optimism that had been growing about the economic recovery and that sort of put everything on hold until we start hearing from companies.”
At closing, the Dow was down 1.94 percent, to 8,163.60. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 17.69 points, or 1.97 percent, to 881.03, and the NASDAQ composite index dropped 41.23, or 2.3 percent, to 1,746.17.
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