By IANS,
New York : The US stocks traded lower Thursday as investors doubted what European leaders can achieve at Sunday’s summit, Xinhua reported.
The market has become over-sensitive to chatters and rumors out of Europe. Anything related to a possible solution to the European debt problems can move the market.
Stocks got a blow Monday as the German finance minister said governments will not yield a definitive solution to the region’s debt crisis.
On Wednesday, remarks from French President Nicholas Sarkozy indicating that talks to tackle the eurozone crisis were stuck sparked another sell-off, one day after a late session rally triggered by a report saying Germany and France had reached an agreement to increase the firepower of Europe’s recently-overhauled bailout fund.
After bobbing from gains to losses, investors began to doubt whether the European countries can really reach an agreement to address the problem.
There is also rumor that the meeting might be postponed due to disagreements on how to deploy cash in the bailout fund.
On the economic front, the US Labour Department Thursday said jobless benefits applications dropped by 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 403,000 last week, in line with previous estimates.
In midday trading, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 84.31 points, or 0.73 percent, to 11,420.31. The Standard & Poor’s 500 was down 10.96 points, or 0.91 percent, to 1,198.92. The Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 40.37 points, or 1.55 percent, to 2,563.67.