US Stocks Fall On Economic Data in March 2010

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Tough economic pressures around the world have put a strain on the American economy. After going up for several days last week, the indexes fell and the rise of oil prices was pushed down a bit. Is this a sign of troubles to come around the world that will hurt the American economy? Once AGAIN?

World Economy Seems to be Slipping Down

After a downgrade in the debt pressure of Portugal on the Euro, which pushed the U.S. dollar higher, and then caused oil to go down, it may be no surprise that major stock indexes were down as a result. The S&P 500 index fell by 71.4 points earlier this week due to the lowering of Portugal’s debt by one point to Double-A-Minus. Confidence in the Euro has fell as a result, which helped the dollar. The Euro fell to a 10-month low against the U.S. dollar. The strong U.S. dollar at this moment pushed the Canadian Dollar, which was close to par, down almost one cent to 97.64 cents US.

For crude oil, the May crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell by $1.16 to $80.75, which hurt the energy sector by pushing it down by .57 percent. Mining companies also suffered, with the gold sector falling by 2.42 percent total.

In terms of the Dow Jones, it lost 50 points and fell to 10,838, with the NASDAQ falling by 14.04 points as well. Durable goods orders in the United States grew by .5 percent, which is below the .7 percent growth that was expected. One good point about this rise in goods orders is that there have been three straight months with rises in orders.

Home Sales Went down in February 2010

Additionally, the U.S. Commerce Department reported that home sales fell by over two percent last month. This is not good considering many economists were forecasting a rise of 1.9 percent.

The world is still battling through The Great Recession, and with Portugal having problems with its credit rating, there seems to be no real end in sight yet. The United States economy appeared to be growing earlier this month, but once again things have fallen as a result of the troubles around the world. With the Euro struggling, the dollar is doing better but that does not mean that the American economy is going to be improving any time soon.

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