The Census Bureau released the August 2010 Full Report on Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories and Orders today. It turns out that new orders of manufactured goods were down .5 percent in August. During the prior month, orders had risen .1 percent—still, analysts expected them to fall in August by about .4 percent, which makes the actual number more than disappointing.
European markets were down today, with France’s CAC 40 losing 1.14 percent and the UK’s FTSE 100 dropping .66 percent. Asian markets were up. Last week was a difficult week for most of Europe’s economy, and over the weekend, it got worse as concerns about a terrorist attack in Europe caused many countries to issue travel alerts to those considering a trip to Europe. This could lose the European economy some much needed tourism dollars and could have a troubling effect on Europe’s already shaky economy.
Between European economic concerns and manufacturing news, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 78.41 points to10,751.27. The Nasdaq dropped 26.23 points to 2,344.52 and the S&P 500 fell 9.21 points to 1,137.03.
Stocks in the news: Visa Inc (NYSE: V), MasterCard Inc (NYSE: MA), Sara Lee Corp (NYSE: SLE).
