Major losses on Wall Street

Bangladesh News.Net
Tuesday 20th May, 2008

Big falls were recorded across the board on Wall Street Tuesday.

All indices were well in the red most of the day but clawed back some losses towards the close.

The U.S. dollar was also sold off.

Hitting trading sentiment was the price of oil nearing $130 a barrel, and a push higher in a major inflation indicator.

The U.S. producer price index, excluding volatile food and energy costs, rose 0.4% in April, taking the index to its highest year-to-date reading in 17 years.

By the close of trading the Dow Jones Industrials had lost 199.48 points or 1.53% at 12,828.68.

The Nasdaq Composite was off 23.83 points or 0.95% at 2,492.26.

The Standard and Poor's 500 shed 13.23 points or 0.93% to 1,413.40.

On foreign exchange markets the dollar fell sharply across the board.

By the New York close the euro was trading up at 1.5646. The British pound rose to 1.9669, and the Japanese yen to 103.66. The Swiss franc strengthened to 1.0371.

The Australian dollar firmed to .9576, while the Canadian dolar rose to .9921.

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