Reuters: US Dollar Report: GLOBAL MARKETS-U.S. stocks pare losses on new jobs view

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GLOBAL MARKETS-U.S. stocks pare losses on new jobs view Mar 29th 2012, 21:14 Thu Mar 29, 2012 5:14pm EDT * U.S. stocks pare losses on renewed view of labor market * Concerns about economy lift government debt * Oil prices fall below $123 a barrel By Herbert Lash NEW YORK, March 29 (Reuters) - U.S. equities pared most losses in a late-day surge on Thursday, driven by investors snapping up big-cap names and the notion that concerns about the jobs picture, which helped spur the buying of safe-haven government debt, were overblown. New U.S. claims for jobless benefits fell only slightly last week, according to the Labor Department, missing forecasts for a greater decline, while the prior week's number was revised up. Some investors said the data undercut optimism about U.S. job growth, and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said again that the U.S. economy's recovery was relatively weak. Yet a late-day surge suggested investors had second thoughts about the jobs report, which showed initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 359,000, the lowest level since April 2008. Investors seeking to spruce up the release of their quarterly holdings also helped the major U.S. stock indexes to rebound from losses of 1 percent or more. Separately, a report on the Commerce Department's final estimate of gross domestic product showed that the economy expanded 3 percent in the fourth quarter, as expected. "It's hard to take away the end-of-the-quarter price action. People are buying winning stocks, and the claims data, which was a bit shy of expectations, is still showing that we are at OK levels. That's enough to keep investors happy," said Nicolas Colas, chief market strategist at ConvergEx Group in New York. The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 19.61 points, or 0.15 percent, at 13,145.82. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 2.26 points, or 0.16 percent, at 1,403.28. The Nasdaq Composite Index slid 9.60 points, or 0.31 percent, to 3,095.36. Despite the S&P 500 posting a third day in a row of declines, the benchmark index is still up 2.8 percent in March and nearly 12 percent for the year, its best start since 1998. Caterpillar Inc and Coca-Cola Co added the most to the Dow. Caterpillar rose 1.7 percent to $106.02, while Coke gained 1.6 percent to end at $73.81 after hitting a new 52-week high of $74.39 earlier in the session. Earlier in the day, European shares extended declines amid continued growth concerns and as technical pressure weighed on several major indexes. The FTSEurofirst 300 index of leading European shares closed down 1.2 percent to at 1,059.21, while the Euro STOXX 50 was down 1.8 percent. U.S. government debt prices rose, with benchmark yields hovering at two-week lows. Nagging jitters about the euro zone's fiscal woes and a perception that the Fed might consider more stimulus to help the U.S. economy also revived bidding. The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note was up 13/32 in price to yield 2.15 percent. The euro slid against the dollar and the yen as investors, nervous about Spain's budget presentation on Friday, dumped the single currency amid persisting concerns about the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis. The single currency has declined steadily in recent sessions after touching a near four-week high earlier this week on comments from Bernanke, who indicated supportive monetary policy will remain in place. The dollar fell 0.5 percent to 82.43 yen, according to Reuters data. The euro tumbled 0.6 percent to 109.65 yen , and against the dollar, the single currency fell 0.1 percent to $1.3314. Oil prices fell for a third straight session, snapping key technical support after growing talk of a release of strategic petroleum reserves by consumer nations spurred profit-taking. Brent crude futures fell $1.77 to settle at $122.39 a barrel. U.S. crude futures lost $2.63 to settle at $102.78 a barrel. After a 1.8 percent drop on Wednesday, it was the biggest two-day slide since mid-December. Pressure is mounting to tackle high fuel prices ahead of French elections. Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi also attacked high oil prices in a rare opinion piece published in the Financial Times on Wednesday. "The talk of a possible strategic oil reserve release by the U.S. and EU is another big effort to talk prices down," said David Morrison, a market analyst at financial services company GFT, adding that the downward effect of last year's emergency release had only been temporary. Spot gold prices fell 83 cents to $1,660.70 an ounce. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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