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Thursday, April 5, 2012 – Daily News Stocks suffer worst loss in a month NEW YORK (AP) — European debt flared again as a worry for Wall Street and drove stocks Wednesday to their worst loss in a month. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 125 points, and the price of gold plunged to its lowest level since Janu- ary. It was only the sec- ond time this year the Dow has recorded a triple-digit decline. The average gained 8 per- cent from January through March, its best first quarter since 1998, but has lost 1 percent already in April. The Dow was down as much as 179 points earlier in the day. It recovered to close indexes fell 2.8 percent in Germany, 2.7 percent in France and 2.3 per- cent in Britain. Investors had scarce- ly stopped worrying about the fate of Greece when Spain took its place as the flashpoint of the debt crisis that has hobbled Europe for more than two years. ''It's like when cock- roaches appear: You're never quite sure how many are out there,'' said John Manley, chief equity strategist for Wells Fargo Advantage Funds. Benchmark stock In the U.S., the Stan- dard & Poor's 500 index finished down 14.42 at 1,398.96. down 124.80 at 13,074.75. Only four of the 30 stocks that make up the average rose for the day. A disappointing auc- tion of government debt in Spain signaled that investor confidence in that country's finances is weakening. Spain announced tax increases and budget cuts last week, which could hurt its economy further. Bond yields in Spain shot higher, making it more expensive for the country to raise money. heavy Nasdaq compos- ite index fell 45.48 to 3,068.09, its worst decline of the year and the sixth loss in seven days. The technology- Commodity prices fell sharply. Gold plunged $57.90, or 3.5 percent, to $1,614.10 an ounce. Many investors hold gold as a hedge against a weakening dollar. Gold doubled in price after the 2008 financial crisis and almost hit $1,900 an ounce, driven partly by fear about the global economy and partly by investors who saw an opportunity to make money from gold's strong rally. Silver fell more than 6 percent Wednesday, and copper fell 3 per- cent. Tuesday. Crude oil fell $2.54 a barrel to $101.47, its lowest level since mid- February. Investors looking for safe places to park money drove prices for U.S. government debt and the value of the dol- lar higher. The euro fell as low as $1.3106, its lowest point against the dollar in more than two weeks. It traded at $1.3217 late The price of crude oil fell $2.54 per barrel to $101.47, its first close below $102 since mid- February. On Tuesday, minutes from the last meeting of the Federal Reserve showed that members had a sunnier view of the economy because of strong gains in the job market in December, January and February. The Fed signaled that because the economy is improving, it is unlikely to buy bonds to stimu- late the economy fur- ther. bond-buying programs in 2008 and 2010 to lower interest rates and The Fed launched help stock prices. Payroll processor ADP said Wednesday that the economy added 209,000 private-sector jobs in March. government's monthly unemployment report on Friday will show a gain of 210,000 for March. Job growth averaged 245,000 from December through February. Traders sold Euro- pean bonds and bought safer investments such as German bunds and U.S. Treasurys. Economists think the year Treasury note fell to 2.23 percent from 2.29 percent late Tues- day. The yield on the 10- news: — Sears fell 7.4 per- cent. The retailer is reportedly planning to sell the casual clothing line Lands' End, which it acquired in 2002. — SanDisk, which Bank stocks, which typically decline when the European debt crisis flares, dropped sharply. Citigroup dropped 3.6 percent, Morgan Stanley fell 3.5 percent, JPMor- gan Chase 2.2 percent and Bank of America 3 percent. ''Despite the relative- ly strong run we've had in the U.S., there's a number of headwinds out there, the main one being Europe,'' said Bernie Kavanagh, vice president portfolio man- agement at the invest- ment firm Stifel Finan- cial. The stocks of materi- als and mining compa- makes memory cards and chips, plunged 11 percent, the most in the S&P, after the company cut its forecast for first- quarter revenue because of weaker demand and lower prices. — Home marketer Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. dropped 8.5 percent on fears that a public stock offering of 25 mil- lion shares would dilute share value. The compa- ny is selling stock to reduce debt. — GMX Resources, an independent oil and gas producer, shot up 24 percent after the compa- ny reported that a well drilled in McKenzie County, North Dakota was producing oil at a 50 percent higher rate than a nearby well. Is this the end of the gold rush? Gold plunges to 3-month low NEW YORK (AP) — The price of gold, which has climbed for years like a blood pressure reading for anxious investors, plunged Wednesday to its lowest level in three months. Gold fell almost $58 to $1,614 per ounce. It has declined 15 per- cent since September, when it hit a peak of $1,907. It had more than doubled from the financial crisis three years earlier. The decline Wednesday came on an ugly day in the stock mar- ket. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 125 points — a day that last year probably would have caused fearful investors to buy gold as a protective invest- ment. ''It's difficult to forecast, but I think the gold bull market is over,'' said Cetin Ciner, a profes- sor of finance at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. He likened the surge in gold to dot- com stocks before they collapsed. Some investors buy gold as a hedge against inflation, and min- utes from a Federal Reserve meeting that came out Tuesday afternoon suggested that the cen- tral bank believes inflation is under control. Gold's attraction as an asset of refuge during crises also seems to have diminished. The economy has picked up, and worst-case scenarios in the United States and Europe have faded. ''Fear has been gold's best friend, and so to the extent that fear is dissipating, gold should fall,'' said Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management. ''We might look back at these Fed minutes as the line in the sand.'' Gold has been hit in recent weeks by a strike by gold sellers in India, the world's largest buyer of physical gold. Another bearish sign was a surge Wednesday in the dollar, which tends to rise when gold falls. Gold fetched only $300 to $400 an ounce during the 1990s but climbed steadily last decade. It took off in late 2008, when prices for stocks and corporate bonds plunged, wiping out years of savings and even money mar- ket funds looked suspect. Investors bid up prices for the safest of assets, like U.S. Trea- sury bonds. Others turned to gold. ''During our bout with Armageddon, people ran to it for safety,'' said Abraham Bailin, a commodity analyst at Morn- ingstar. ''It might sound silly now, but that's where it started.'' Demand for gold surged as the Federal Reserve bought bonds to push down borrowing costs and stimulate the economy, a move known as quantitative easing. The Fed's efforts to pump money into the banking system and avert a deep recession led to fears of runaway inflation, a con- cern shared by both the tea party and big-shot investors. Buying gold soon became a political statement. For those who didn't trust financial institutions or were wary of the government, it was the investment of choice. The television personality Glenn Beck advised viewers to stock up on gold bars. ''Gold became a symbol of your political leanings,'' Bailin said. ''It became a way to specu- late on the solvency of the econo- my.'' month, topping real estate and stocks by a wide margin. Nearly half of those surveyed considered it a bad time to buy stocks. One popular vehicle for buy- ing gold, the SPDR Gold Trust, a fund that trades on the open mar- ket like a stock, has attracted hun- dreds of millions of dollars of investor money each month since its launch in 2004. It now holds $67.3 billion 5B nies fell. Newmont Min- ing was down 3.6 per- cent, while Freeport- McMoran Copper fell 1.4 percent. Aluminum maker Alcoa Inc. fell 2.5 percent, one of the biggest declines in the Dow. In other corporate Or perhaps to speculate that the price would continue to rise, whatever the reason. Some ana- lysts, like Ciner and Wells Fargo's Paulsen, said that as the price climbed ever higher, every- day investors may have been try- ing to catch the wave. Gold was named the ''best worth of gold. That makes it the largest ETF save for the SPDR S&P 500, which tracks stocks, according to Morningstar's Bailin. investment'' in CNBC's quarterly survey of investors released last $99 Clock Repair 20910 Pebblestone Dr. Red Bluff Jim Paul Electrical clocks Call for appt. 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