Stocks Look for Direction in Seesaw Week
It's been a seesaw week on Wall Street, and with just two sessions to go, stocks are down for the week after a stellar run-up last week.
The Dow fell 77 points yesterday to 12,496. The S&P dropped 9 points to 1,315 and the Nasdaq lost 24 points to 2,819.
Futures this Thursday morning are moving between positive and negative territory and are currently off about 10 points. Investors are navigating Moody's three-notch downgrade of Spain Wednesday evening, rising bond yields in both Spain and Italy, as well as a weak reading on weekly jobless claims just released this morning.
Finnish cellphone maker Nokia (NYSE:NOK) says it will lay off 10,000 workers globally and close plants by the end of next year in a further move to save money. Some research and development projects will be shut down in Ulm, Germany, and Burnaby, Canada, as well as a core manufacturing plant in Finland.
In an updated economic outlook, Nokia said that "competitive industry dynamics" in the second quarter will hit its smartphone sector with no improvement coming in the third quarter.
As a result, the head of its struggling mobile phone unit will lose her job. Last year -- believe it or not -- Nokia was the world's top maker of smartphones; it has been unseated this year by Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Samsung.