Wall Street falls on data, S&P hits new low for year

Thursday, 4 August 2011 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reuters - Wall Street stocks tumbled on Wednesday with the S&P falling to a new low for the year after another round of soft economic data. The U.S. services sector fell in July to its lowest level since February 2010, while new U.S. factory orders fell in June, pulled down by weak demand for transportation equipment.

“More of the same, we continue to disappoint. It’s not just us, it’s the whole world. I’m having trouble now remembering the last good data point,” said Uri Landesman, president of Platinum Partners in New York. “We’ve had a very good run over nearly the whole last year and it was kind of bound to happen, and with this kind of data it was almost a no-brainer.” The S&P 500 turned negative for the year on Tuesday, falling through its key 200-day moving average. On Wednesday, the benchmark broke below the intraday low for the year of 1,249.05, seen as the next critical technical support.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI dropped 155.15 points, or 1.31 percent, to 11,711.47. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index .SPX lost 18.78 points, or 1.50 percent, to 1,235.27.

The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC fell 46.30 points, or 1.73 percent, to 2,622.94.

Markets got an initial boost after payrolls processor ADP reported that U.S. private employers added 114,000 jobs in July, topping forecasts of 100,000 jobs, but the gains were quickly erased.

The benchmark S&P 500 was on track for its eighth straight declining session, which would match a losing streak in October 2008 during the financial crisis.

On the plus side, credit card processor MasterCard Inc (MA.N) jumped 6 percent to $316.10 after second-quarter profit rose 33 percent on gains in card transactions and revenue.