stock markets

PulteGroup, Lennar and other housing stocks climbed following news that a measure of national home prices rose 1.3% in April, the first increase in seven months. This helped fuel overall gains in the stock markets.

Analysts worry that Europe’s piecemeal approach to its spreading government debt crises may fall short, and the banking system of a large country like Spain could collapse. This helped send stock markets lower Monday.

Stock markets turned around on Fricay, led by banks. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and other big lenders posted solid gains.

The big stock market indices lost ground on Thursday due to nagging problems in Europe, and iffy U.S. economic data. But many big media companies lost less. CBS, Time Warner, Discovery Communications and Walt Disney Corp. all fared somewhat better than the 2% drop the Dow Jones Industrial endured.

Losses in energy and materials companies led a widespread rout on the stock market. The Dow started sinking after 10 a.m., when the Philadelphia branch of the Federal Reserve reported a sharp contraction in manufacturing in the Northeast. The losses accelerated throughout the day.

The Federal Reserve’s latest plan to help the economy failed to impress Wall Street on Wednesday. Stocks finished slightly lower for the day, and not much better than they were before the Fed announcement.

Stock traders latched on to recent signals from the Federal Reserve that the central bank may reveal plans to stimulate the economy at the end of its two-day meeting Wednesday, driving up stock markets Tuesday.

U.S. stocks meandered Monday as investors appeared fed up with policy makers’ inability to resolve a crisis that has bedeviled markets for more than three years.

Stocks recorded their third big gain of the week and closed at a one-month high Friday. For the week, the Dow rose 0.9%, the S&P 1% and the Nasdaq 1.3%.

The stock market began climbing in early trading after a tame inflation reading and another weak jobs report raised expectations that the Federal Reserve would offer more support for the U.S. economy.

Major market indexes wavered for much of Wednesday but fell sharply after the finance minister of Cyprus warned that his country may seek its own bailout this week, stoking the uneasy feeling that the crisis is far from over.

Stocks shot up Tuesday after Charles Evans, president of the Fed’s Chicago bank, said that he supported action to produce faster job growth, including having the Fed commit to super-low interest rates until unemployment falls significantly.

Stocks opened sharply higher but sank all day. More alarming, bond investors signaled that they are less confident about lending money to the governments of both Spain and Italy, which investors fear will be next to seek help.

Stocks fell in morning trading Friday, with the Dow Jones industrial average down almost 63 points. But they turned around after the government said businesses are restocking their shelves faster than analysts had expected.

An early rally in stocks faded in the afternoon Thursday after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke signaled no immediate further steps from the Fed to stoke economic growth in the United States, which has shown signs of faltering.

The big jump follows weeks of losses. Hope that European officials would find ways to ease the region’s debt crisis helped launch the rally. News reports said Germany and European Union officials were considering a plan to lend money from the European bailout fund to help rescue Spain’s hobbled banks.

Stocks inched higher Tuesday as European finance leaders held an emergency conference call to discuss how Europe can heal its weakest countries without alienating the stronger ones that have to foot the bill.

Wall Street ended trading Monday with mixed results as calm returned to the markets.

A weak U.S. jobs report flustered investors and intensified fears that a global recession was in the making. The dismal report released Friday came on the heels of other data that showed weak economic conditions in Europe and Asia.

A dismal job market report pushed the U.S. unemployment rate to 8.2% from 8.1% and sent stock markets tumbling. Economists had forecast a gain of 158,000 jobs.

With a disappointing finish on Thursday, the stock market closed what was by some measures its worst month in two years. When May was mercifully over, the Dow Jones industrial average and other major indexes had erased most of the strong gains they built up through March and held on to in April.

In the United States, where concerns about Europe have already wiped out most of this year’s gains for stocks, major averages fell more than 1% on Wednesday.

Stocks rose Tuesday. In fact, they had one of their best days in an otherwise dreary month. Investors focused on hopes that China is poised to rev up its economic growth machine and that upcoming elections in Greece will help the country stay in the euro.

Stocks fell on Wall Street Friday as Bankia, a hobbled Spanish lender, asked that country’s government for $23.8 billion in support.

Stocks flipped between gains and losses Thursday, after a meeting of European leaders failed to deliver new steps to ease the region’s debt crisis.

A late rally on Wednesday erased steep losses on Wall Street. The Dow spent most of the day down more than 100 points, then recovered 84 points in the final hour.

Stocks ended mixed Tuesday after news broke that Greece’s former prime minister said the country was considering dropping the euro.

Monday was the Dow’s first gain after six straight days of losses, and only its third up day for May. Last week was the worst for the Dow since November. The month has wiped out nearly three-fourths of the Dow’s first-quarter gains.

Worries about Europe’s debt crisis turned out to be a big problem for investors on Friday, sending the markets lower.

A pair of discouraging economic reports, combined with continuing investor worries about Greece’s possible exit from euro, helped send stock markets down once again on  Thursday.

Greek turmoil led to losses on Wall Street Wednesday. The main cause for investor worry was that Greece would pull out of the group of countries that use the euro, and that that would throw the global markets into chaos.

U.S. stock indexes wavered between modest gains and losses Tuesday as traders weighed encouraging economic reports against European headlines that sent overseas markets reeling.

Stocks and the euro dropped Monday as the political deadlock continues in Greece.

Stock markets declined Friday, but the drop is muted, despite a slump in bank stocks.

Before Thursday, the Dow had fallen six days in a row, its longest losing streak since August. Investors have worried that job growth is fading. They were encouraged by a Labor Department report that applications for unemployment benefits dropped 1,000 to 367,000 in the week ending May 5.

U.S. stocks fell Wdnesday as more doubts over Europe’s economic health surfaced. European stocks are having one of their worst weeks in months. London’s FTSE 100 index is down 2.2 percent this week, its worst performance since December. Stocks in Athens are down 10.8 percent, the most since August.

Turmoil in Europe pushed stocks lower in the U.S. European indexes closed near their lowest levels in months, and the euro neared a five-month low against the dollar. Prices plummeted for commodities like oil and copper that depend on the health of the world economy.

Investors on Monday worried that the shifting political landscape in Europe could undermine the region’s long battle to keep its shared currency intact and restore the faith of global investors. European markets slumped early on, but closed higher after worries about the political changes dissipated and investors focused on Hollande’s pledges to encourage economic growth.

A poor jobs report on Friday confirmed what investors had feared for much of the week: that the U.S. economy was slowing. Investors were already on edge as France and Greece head into elections over the weekend.

Disappointing April sales results from big retailers set the bleak tone early in the trading session Thursday and stocks ended up closing lower.