Independent, Fee-Only Financial Advisor

Independent, Fee-Only Financial Advisor

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Wednesday

Stocks suffered their worst daily loss in more than a month, sunk by a dismal reading of consumer borrowing and discouraging comments from Federal Reserve officials, who warned of both weak growth and a potential uptick in interest rates. The Fed released data showing that consumer borrowing fell $11.5 billion in February, a much bigger decline than Wall Street was expecting. Such a slide suggests that consumers' pocketbooks are suffering more than thought from high unemployment and the lingering effects of the bursting of the real-estate bubble. That bodes ill for the broader U.S. economy, more than two-thirds of which is tied to consumer spending. The dollar strengthened against the euro due to continued worry over Greece's ability to finance its debt. DJIA -72.47 Nasdaq -5.65 S&P 500 -6.99.