Lacklustre end to week for U.S. stocks

Calcutta News.Net
Friday 15th August, 2008

U.S. stocks were mixed on Friday with the industrial sector in positive territory, and techs dipping into the red.

The price of oil, and other commodities, fell sending the U.S. dollar higher against the euro. Retail stocks rose.

At the close of trading the Dow Jones Industrials were up 43.97 points or 0.38% at 11,659.90.

The Nasdaq Composite was down 1.15 points or 0.05% at 2,452.52.

The Standard and Poor's 500 was up 5.26 points or 0.41% at 1,298.19.

Stocks were mixed in Europe Friday. London's FTSE 100 lost 0.77%, while the German DAX inched up 0.06%. Paris's CAC-40 was up 0.74%, while the Swiss SMI rose 0.41%.

Asian markets were mostly lower Friday. The Hong Kong Hang Seng shed 1.9% while India's BSE 30 dropped 2.44%. The Taiwan Weighted was down 1.77% while the Australian All Ordinaries was virtually unchanged. The Shanghai Composite rose 0.56%.

On foreign exchange markets the U.S. dollar was higher against the euro but little changed against other currencies. Around the New York close the euro had fallen to 1.4680.

The British pound was fetching 1.8632, and the Australian dollar .8656. The Japanese yen was unchanged at 110.48, while the Swiss franc was changing hands at 1.0966. The Canadian dollar was quoted at 1.0585.

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