Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Wall Street retreats again on growth concerns

US stocks dipped in light volume as lingering concerns about a slowdown in growth more than offset gains in energy shares.Investors kept trimming large-cap technology positions, pushing the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lower.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 25.05 points, or 0.20 percent, to 12,356.21. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 1.09 points, or 0.08 percent, to 1,316.28. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 12.74 points, or 0.46 percent, to 2,746.16.

European shares edged up, with miners among those recovering some ground lost in a sharp sell-off in the previous session, though analysts said markets might struggle to make much progress in the short term.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of top shares rose 0.2 percent to close at 1,118.76 points, having fallen 1.7 percent. The index remained below its 50-day moving average, a bearish signal.

Japan's Nikkei average edged higher after hitting a fresh five-week low, helped by climbs in Sony Corp and construction machinery shares but the benchmark remained vulnerable amid growing worries about the euro-zone debt crisis.

The benchmark Nikkei closed the day up 0.2 percent at 9,477.17, after earlier touching a five-week intraday low of 9,406.04, a notch above its April 19 intraday low. The broader Topix index gained 0.2 percent to 819.16 , having pulled up from a two-month intraday low of 812.52 earlier in the day.