Sometimes, it can be difficult to figure out what economic catalyst prompted the day’s market movement. Today is not one of those days. While there were no major economic reports released today and yesterday’s reported drop in jobless claims was good news, the 2011 fiscal year outlook of Cisco Systems Inc’s (NASDAQ: CSCO) CEO was the market’s undoing. Citing the slowing of business capital spending as well other economic weaknesses, the CEO gave analysts a relatively conservative outlook for the company’s 2011 revenue just one day after the company’s first quarter 2011 financial results were released.
Also possibly working on investors’ nerves were this week’s criticisms and concerns about the Federal Reserve’s plan for quantitative easing and insecurity about economic policies and statements likely to come out of the impending G-20 meeting, with special concern surrounding Ireland’s potential debt crisis.
No matter what the reason was, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down all day, eventually closing down 73.94 points to 11,283.10. The Nasdaq fell 23.26 points to 2,555.52 and the S&P 500 dropped 5.17 points to 1,213.54.
European markets were mixed while Asian markets were up on Thursday.
Stocks in the news: Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), Linear Technology Corporation (NASDAQ: LLTC), Dell Inc (NASDAQ: DELL)
