Market milestones noted but not much celebrated

The stock market reached a couple of milestones this week – Dow 13,000 for the first time since 2008 and Nasdaq 3,000 for the first time since 2000 – but it didn’t achieve much else.

Stocks crept lower Friday, and the Dow Jones industrial average turned in its third losing week of the year. One of the few bright spots was Yelp, the online restaurant review site, which surged 64 percent in its debut. Yelp ended its first trading day at $24.58, far above its initial public offering price of $15.

The Dow slipped 2.73 points to close at 12,977.57. It’s down 5 points for the week. American Express Co. dropped 1 percent, the biggest fall among the 30 companies in the Dow.

The Nasdaq composite index fell 12.78 points to 2,976.19, a loss of 0.4 percent.

Both the Dow and Nasdaq fell below highs hit earlier this week. The Dow ended the trading day above 13,000 on Tuesday for the first time since May 2008. The Nasdaq composite index broke the 3,000 level Wednesday for the first time since 2000.

These round numbers mean little to professional investors, said Brad Sorensen, director of market and sector analysis at Charles Schwab. But the media attention they generate may lure Americans back into the stock market, he said, and their savings could push indexes even higher.

In other trading Friday, the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 4.46 points to 1,369.63.

Wynn shares remain higher despite mistaken filing report

Wynn Resorts Ltd. shares remained higher Friday, even after the company said that a filing reporting progress on a new resort in the Chinese gaming hub of Macau was a mistake.

Shares had jumped 6 percent after Wynn filed a regulatory report saying it made progress on a lease for the resort. Then trading was halted, and the company later said in another filing that the initial filing was a mistake. Wynn says there was no agreement and the filing was submitted by accident.

When trading resumed, the stock fell momentarily but still kept most of its earlier gains. Shares were up more than 4 percent in late afternoon trading.

That might be because many investors still believe that Wynn is close to getting approval for its latest Macau project, even if the filing was declared erroneous, Sterne, Agee & Leach analyst David Bain said in an interview. The depth and specificity of the filing made it look legitimate and many investors are betting that Wynn simply filed it earlier than it meant to, Bain said.

GM suspends production of Volt to lower inventory

General Motors is suspending production of its Chevrolet Volt electric car for five weeks in hopes of reducing inventory to meet lower-than-expected demand.

A GM spokesman said Friday that the company will shut down production of the Volt from March 19 until April 23.

Spokesman Chris Lee says the automaker is trying to maintain proper inventory while matching production to demand.

Chevrolet sold 1,023 Volts last month. It sold 7,671 last year, below its original goal of 10,000 cars.

– From news service reports

 

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