Friday was marked by global stock market anxiety and in New York, the indexes fell for the second day in a row. The S&P 500 closed Friday and the stock exchange week at minus 1.8 percent. The industrial-heavy Dow Jones closed at minus 1.5 percent, while the Nasdaq composite index fell 2.4 percent.
The red figures must be seen against the background of Friday's unexpectedly weak figures for the American labor market. Statistics for July show rising unemployment and fewer new jobs. On Thursday, an unexpectedly low purchasing managers' index was also reported – and thus an unexpected slowdown in the manufacturing industry.
The labor market situation is a key indicator of the economic trend that is important for the US central bank, the Federal Reserve's, assessments of interest rates. There are concerns that the Fed has held back for too long and will not be able to rescue the economy with forthcoming interest rate cuts.
IT giant Intel had a terrible day, with a loss for the second quarter of 1.6 billion dollars and a savings package that could lead to 15,000 employees being laid off. The stock plummeted 26.1 percent and the company had its worst stock market day since 1974, according to NCBC.
E-commerce giant Amazon also had a bad stock market day and fell 8.8 percent. Energy giant Chevron closed at minus 2.7 percent and Microsoft at minus 2.1 percent.
Apple rose by 0.7 percent, McDonald's by 3.0 percent, and Clorox by 7.4 percent.
