New York, May 22 (Inditop) The Wall Street closed lower Thursday as investors worried that the economy might not recover as quickly as expected.
Investors grew nervous after the credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) warned that Britain may have its rating cut because of the nation’s increasing debt. S&P lowered the country’s credit outlook from “stable” to “negative”.
Worry over AAA rating of Britain and the US weighed on the big board.
The market was also hit after the US government posted a new record of jobless claims. The US Labour Department said Thursday initial claims for jobless benefits fell 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 631,000 last week.
On Thursday, General Motors (GM) shares surged nearly 30 percent after the United Auto Workers union said it reached a tentative agreement with the company and the US Treasury to modify the carmaker’s 2007 labour contract and a health-care trust for the retirees.
The Dow Jones lost 129.91, or 1.54 percent, to 8,292.13. Broader indexes also moved lower. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 15.14, or 1.68 percent, to 888.33, and the Nasdaq dipped 32.59, or 1.89 percent, to 1,695.25.
