Stocks sag at the close; January finishes on weak note
Source: AP-Excite
By ALEX VEIGA
The U.S. stock market capped a rough month Friday, delivering its third loss in five days and extending its declines for the year.
All told, the Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 3 percent in January, its worse monthly performance in a year. While the U.S. economy continued to show signs of strength, energy companies suffered from a sharp drop in oil prices and some big multinational companies saw their earnings dinged by a stronger dollar.
On Friday, investors also weighed the consequences of a slowdown in U.S. economic growth and how further strength in the dollar could dent corporate profits.
"The real issue still is the confusion, the uncertainty around the speed of decline in oil prices and what that means, and the rise in the dollar and what that means for earnings," said Bob Doll, chief equity strategist at Nuveen Asset Management.
FULL story at link.
Danny Meyer, center, Founder & CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group, waits for the Shake Shack IPO to begin trading, on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, Jan. 30, 2015. Shares of Shake Shack Inc. have more than doubled minutes after they debuted on the stock market Friday.(AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20150130/financial_markets-68db90c524.html
