Stock Market News for June 29, 2010

Stocks fell modestly on Monday as fears of a global economic slowdown kept investors on toes throughout the session.  As investors braced for key economic reports due to be released this week, they walked a fine line trying to balance global growth concerns with promises of a slow but a steady recovery in place.

G-20’s promise to halve fiscal deficits by 2013 and its pledge to start stabilizing debt-to-output ratios by 2016 were brushed aside by wary investors who feared such measures would jeopardize the world economic recovery already having a fair share of its worries.

After oscillating between gains and losses for much of the session, the Dow industrials dropped 50 points in the final hour of trading to close with a loss of 5.29 points, or 0.1%, at 10,138.52.  The tech-heavy Nasdaq slipped a meager 2 points and the widely tracked S&P 500 index dipped 3 points.  Volume was thin on the New York Stock Exchange where less than a billion shares exchanged hands. 

Stocks had dropped on Friday even as the Congress reached an agreement on the financial reform regulation.  China’s announcement at the beginning of last week that it would let yuan float more freely caused some enthusiasm initially but the gains caused by the announcement faded as the week progressed.  A downwardly revised first-quarter economic growth capped a week that saw the indices dropping at least 2.9%.

Meanwhile, as flight to safety increased, the yield on the benchmark 10-year notes sank to fresh 52-week lows, dropping 3.023% as prices rose 24/32.  Consumer staples were most favored.  DJIA components Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO - Analyst Report) and Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT - Analyst Report) rose 1.6%, Procter and Gamble (NYSE:PG - Analyst Report) 1.4%, and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ - Analyst Report) added 1.3%.

Global growth concerns sent oil and metals price lower.  Shares in Alcoa (NYSE:AA - Analyst Report) dropped 1.8% and Freeport-McMoRan Copper (NYSE:FCX - Analyst Report) declined 2.9%.  Crude price declines of 0.8% to $78.25 sending shares in Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM - Analyst Report) off their 7-week highs. 

On a down day, telecommunications shares notched up gains of 0.8% on reports President Obama had signed a moratorium that would almost double the spectrum size available for smart phones and wireless-Internet devices.  Sprint (NYSE:S - Analyst Report) shares jumped 6.2%, while AT&T (NYSE:T - Analyst Report) added 0.7%.  Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL - Analyst Report), meanwhile announced that it sold 1.7 million iPhone 4s during its first 3 days,

This morning's premarket futures suggest a sharply lower opening, amid economic growth concerns and contagion fears from Europe. 

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