NEW YORK — Stocks slipped Wednesday as protests against austerity measures in Europe brought new worries about the region’s financial system.
The dollar fell further against other currencies as traders anticipate more action by the Federal Reserve to push U.S. interest rates down. Gold continued to climb past $1,300.
European markets fell as demonstrators gathered in Brussels, where the European Union is based, and in several of the bloc’s member countries to protest austerity measures aimed at preventing another crisis like the one that required a bailout of Greece earlier this year. The protests raised concerns that countries like Spain will not be able to implement policies required to deal with their bloated public finances.
U.S. stocks swooned this spring as a fiscal crisis in Greece appeared to be spreading to other weak European economies like Portugal and Spain. A relative calm in European markets since then has allowed U.S. stocks to rise sharply.
Most sectors fell on the stock market except for energy, which rose after crude oil prices gained. Schlumberger Ltd., Occidental Petroleum Corp. and other companies rose after the price of crude oil jumped on news that inventories fell last week. Benchmark crude for November delivery rose $1.68 to settle at $77.86 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Wednesday’s decline in U.S. stocks marked another pause in a month-long rally that has made this September one of the strongest for U.S. stocks in history. With only one trading day left this month, the Dow Jones industrial average is on track for its best September since 1939 with a gain of 8.2 percent so far. It’s still up only 3.9 percent for the year.
The Dow Jones industrial average lost 22.86, or 0.2 percent, to close at 10,835.28.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index slipped 2.97, or 0.3 percent, to 1,144.73, and the Nasdaq composite fell 3.03, or 0.1 percent, to 2,376.56.
Trading was relatively subdued with no major economic reports or corporate earnings reports released Wednesday.
Rising stocks narrowly outpaced falling ones on the New York Stock Exchange, where consolidated volume was 4.1 billion shares.
Bond prices edged lower.The yield on the 10-year Treasury note edged up to 2.50 percent from 2.47 percent late Tuesday.
There’s a growing certainty within the bond market that the Federal Reserve will attempt to spur economic activity through pushing long-term interest rates down further. To do that, the Fed would buy more Treasurys, lifting bond prices and lowering yields. That would also keep downward pressure on the dollar.
Schlumberger rose $1.23 to $61.52, and Occidental Petroleum rose $1.12 to $76.63.
Gold rose $2 to $1,310.30, a day after settling above $1,300 for the first time.
The euro rose to as high as $1.3647 Wednesday, its strongest point since mid-April. In late trading in New York, the euro was worth $1.3643, up from $1.3567 late Tuesday.
Business, Pages 28 on 09/30/2010