Stock Market, Stocks Down | featured news

An unexpected jump in claims for unemployment benefits and plummeting oil prices are driving stocks lower in early trading Thursday.

Worry about lack of substantive progress towards a blueprint for tackling the euro zone debt crisis kept investors on edge, traders said. In the United States, consumer inflation rose more than expected in May.

New doubts about the economic recovery's strength knocked the Dow Jones industrial average down almost 200 points Wednesday... The ISM's manufacturing index fell to 53.5 in May from 60.4 in April... And private employers added just 38,000 jobs in May, down from 177,000 in April, according to payroll processor ADP.

Concerns over the deteriorating condition of Japan's stricken nuclear reactors, and the effect on global economies, sparked the Dow's biggest selloff since August and left the S&P 500 in the red for 2011.

Stocks plunged Tuesday, sending the Dow Jones industrial average down almost 300 points at the opening, as the nuclear crisis in Japan intensified following a deadly earthquake and tsunami....

Stocks tumbled Thursday, hit first by new worries about global growth and then by reports that Saudi police had fired on protesters.

Stocks fell sharply and oil prices spiked to their highest level in two years on Tuesday as investors worried about the increasingly violent unrest in Libya.

Shares were down after a disappointing report on home prices. Traders also took in a mixed batch of earnings in the United States and Europe.

The tone for Wall Street’s retreat was set before the opening bell with markets in Asia and Europe also falling.

Dow plummets nearly 220 points after trade deficit unexpectedly widens and reports from Asia, Europe spurs concerns recovery is veering off track.