Stocks Fall Amid Concern About Consumers

Barclays Group said its Barclays Capital investment unit became the latest financial institution to book a writedown on losses stemming from turbulent credit markets. The business took a $2.7 billion charge in the third quarter but the also said Thursday its profit beat last year's strong performance.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 120.96, or 0.91 percent, to 13,110.05.

Broader stock indicators also declined. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 19.43, or 1.32 percent, to 1,451.15. The Nasdaq composite index fell 25.81, or 0.98 percent, to 2,618.51.

Government bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, slid to 4.14 percent from 4.25 percent late Wednesday.

Oil prices slipped on the New York Mercantile Exchange, where a barrel of light, sweet crude fell 66 cents to settle at $93.43 after domestic crude oil and gasoline inventories rose more than expected last week and OPEC forecast fourth-qua! rter demand for oil would be less than expected. Gold prices fell as the dollar strengthened.

In economic news, the Labor Department said Thursday its Consumer Price Index rose 0.3 percent in October on high energy and foods costs, in line with September's increase and analysts' forecast.

Robert Dye, senior economist at PNC Financial Services Group, is concerned that readings on consumer prices and Wednesday's report on producer prices indicate the economy could start to feel pressure in coming months from higher energy costs as well as a weakening dollar.

"This number tells us that we might be concerned that the Fed might not have the leeway we thought it had a few months ago to ease the fed funds rate," he said, referring to the CPI report and the Fed's efforts to keep inflation in check and keep the dollar from falling further.

Investors were troubled by corporate news. J.C. Penney reported a 9 percent drop in its fiscal third-quarter profit o! n weak sales and cut its fourth-quarter forecast, indicating t! hat hous ing market problems are taking a toll on shoppers, as well. J.C. Penney fell $2.40, or 5.1 percent, to $44.33.

Wells Fargo fell $1.28, or 3.9 percent, to $31.97. Among other financial companies, Citigroup Inc. fell $1.46, or 4.1 percent, to $34.58, while Lehman Brothers Inc. fell $2.48, or 3.8 percent, to $62.97.

Barclays Group fell 88 cents, or 2 percent, to $43.

Exxon Mobil Corp. fell $1.82, or 2.1 percent, to $84.49, while other energy companies also lost ground. ConocoPhillips fell $1.33 to $78.04.

GE fell 70 cents to $38.31.

Ralcorp Holdings Inc., a maker of private-label cereals, said it will buy Kraft Food Inc.'s Post cereals division for $1.65 billion plus $950 mllion in debt.

Kraft fell 61 cents to $32.37, and Ralcorp rose $5.77, or 10.4 percent, to $61.24.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by more than 3 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where consolidated volume came to 3.81 billion shares compared with 3.88! billion shares traded Wednesday.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 10.87, or 1.39 percent, to 771.60.

Major stock indexes overseas slumped. Britain's FTSE 100 declined 1.13 percent, Germany's DAX index fell 1.49 percent, while France's CAC-40 shed 0.93 percent.

Japan's Nikkei stock average closed down 0.67 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 1.42 percent.

On the Net:

New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com

Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com

A service of the Associated Press(AP)

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Source: http://www.trib.com/articles/2007/11/15/ap/business/d8sucvn00.txt
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