Wall Street suffered its worst January. encountered a barrage of bad U.S. economic data continues to shake investor confidence. Dow Jones index ended down 8.8% month in some analysts see as a bad sign for the coming year. The broader S & P 500 index fell by 8.6%, also record decline in January. Dow fell 1.82% on the last trading day of the month after official figures showed that U.S. GDP fell sharply in the last quarter of 2008. The world market also suffered - the MSCI World index closed 8.6% a month.
GDP falls.
U.S. economic output fell by 3.8% in the last three months of the year, the biggest quarterly decline since 1982. It was also the second quarterly decline in a row - for the first time that has happened since 1991. And this was just the latest in a long series of bad economic numbers.
Thursday, the U.S. Commerce Department figures showed that orders for long-lasting manufactured good from U.S. factories fell for the fifth month in a row. Figures published at the beginning of the month showed that more people lost their jobs - 2.6 million - in 2008 than in any year since World War II.
Some of the most reputable companies in the United States has announced massive lay-offs during January. Aircraft manufacturer Boeing announced Wednesday that it was cutting 10,000 jobs. Earlier this week, construction and mining equipment maker Caterpillar announced it would cut about 20,000 jobs, while the carmaker General Motors said 2,000 of its employees will be dismissed. Earlier this month, Microsoft said it would cut more than 5,000 jobs.
Sales decline . Retail sales continued to decline as consumers tighten their belts, while the U.S. housing market shows no signs of improvement. Thursday, figures showed that sales of new homes in the U.S. fell by 14.7% in December. They also showed that for 2008 as a whole, sales fell by 37.8% to 482,000 units, the weakest performance since 1982. In 2007 776.000 housing was sold. Even with the inauguration of President Obama, 20 January led to a sustained rally on Wall Street.
Sales decline . Retail sales continued to decline as consumers tighten their belts, while the U.S. housing market shows no signs of improvement. Thursday, figures showed that sales of new homes in the U.S. fell by 14.7% in December. They also showed that for 2008 as a whole, sales fell by 37.8% to 482,000 units, the weakest performance since 1982. In 2007 776.000 housing was sold. Even with the inauguration of President Obama, 20 January led to a sustained rally on Wall Street.
OBAMA TAKES WALL STREET TO THE WOODSHED....
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