• U.S. stocks declined

Market news

21 June 2012

U.S. stocks declined

 

U.S. stocks declined, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index down for a second straight day, after a gauge of Philadelphia-area manufacturing unexpectedly fell while housing and jobless claims reports disappointed.



Equities fell amid concern about an economic slowdown as manufacturing in the Philadelphia region shrank in June at the fastest pace in almost a year. Sales of previously owned U.S. homes declined in May, while more Americans than forecast filed applications for unemployment benefits last week.

Measures of energy and raw material producers in the S&P 500 lost at least 1.7 percent. China’s manufacturing may shrink for an eighth month in June, matching the streak during the global financial crisis, in a signal the government’s stimulus has yet to reverse the economy’s slowdown.

Alcoa Inc. (AA), the largest U.S. aluminum producer, dropped 2.7 percent to $8.68. Halliburton Co. (HAL), the largest provider of hydraulic-fracturing services, decreased 2.9 percent to $28.72.

Bed Bath & Beyond declined 15 percent, the most ever on a closing basis, to $62.60. It said comparable-store sales in the first quarter rose 3 percent compared with 7 percent a year earlier.

Micron Technology Inc. retreated 5.6 percent to $5.78. The largest U.S. maker of computer memory reported a fourth consecutive quarterly loss after prices fell for chips used to store data in phones and tablets, crimping sales.

Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. surged 41 percent to $62.88, the highest level on record. The company won support from a U.S. advisory panel for its drug to treat a deadly blood cancer that affects 50,000 Americans.

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