The US markets finally gave up on Friday after the Reuters/University of Michigan index of consumer sentiment fell significantly short of expectations for the first part of August. The weak consumer sentiment data fueled concerns about the strength of an economic recovery and the major indices declined by about 1%. Stocks fell across the board, with the biggest losses among financial, energy and material companies – industries that posted some of the biggest gains in recent days. Investors also sold off oil and other commodities and moved their money into the relative safety of the dollar and government bonds.
Consumer spending is crucial for the economy to emerge from recession as it accounts for two-thirds of all U.S. economic activity and after this report its highly being suspected that consumers are going to short-circuit the economic recovery.
Treasury prices jumped, sending their yields lower, while the dollar rose against other major currencies. On the same time weak earnings reports from major retailers, continued to arrive on Friday.
The Dow Jones industrial average declined by 76.79 points, or 0.82%, to 9,321.40.The S&P 500 index lost 8.64 points, or 0.85%, to 1,004.09, while the Nasdaq composite index closed lower by 23.83 points, or 1.19%, to 1,985.52.
The Indian ADRs closed mixed on Friday, HDFC Bank was by 0.59%, Patni Computers was up by 0.93% and Sify closed higher by 0.40%.
On the other hand Infosys was down by 2.19%, Wipro was down by 1.53%, ICICI Bank was down by 2.93% and Tata Motors was down by 3.51%