CALDEIRÃO DE BOLSA

Associated Press
Stocks Drop on Unemployment Claims
01.13.2005, 09:54 AM

An unexpected jump in unemployment claims and another rise in crude oil prices pushed stocks lower Thursday, but the losses were limited by strong earnings from Apple Computer Inc.

Crude oil futures extended their gains, nearing $47 per barrel, as investors worried about declining U.S. reserves, the Iraqi elections and evidence of OPEC production cuts. A barrel of light crude was quoted at $46.94, up 57 cents, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Wall Street also worried about the latest first-time jobless claims report, which showed a jump of 10,000 claims to 367,000 last week, a three month high. After last week's modest job creation report, the labor market remained a major concern for investors.

In the first hour of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 21.36, or 0.2 percent, to 10,596.42.

Broader stock indicators were narrowly lower. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was down 1.48, or 0.1 percent, at 1,186.22, and the Nasdaq composite index lost 2.36, or 0.1 percent, to 2,090.17.

The Commerce Department's December report on retail sales failed to impress investors. Sales rose 1.2 percent for the month, better than the 1.1 percent hike economists had forecast. However, taking auto sales out of the equation, retail sales rose just 0.3 percent, less than the 0.4 percent Wall Street expected.

But there was upbeat news from Apple, which had an impressive fourth quarter, beating Wall Street profit forecasts by 21 cents per share. The company credited strong sales of its popular iPod music player for quadrupling its profits from a year ago. Apple climbed $8.08, or 12.3 percent, to $73.54.

Dow component Pfizer Inc. lost 28 cents to $25.75 after the Food and Drug Administration warned that the company's advertising for pain medications Celebrex and Bextra were misleading due to unrealistic effectiveness claims. Celebrex, the arthritis drug, was shown in recent studies to increase the risk of heart complications.

Google Inc. introduced a new search program for small businesses, allowing entrepreneurs to add search capabilities to their Web sites for thousands of dollars less than Google's previous low-end offerings. Google slipped 68 cents to $194.71.

A medical journal and the Defense Department have come to the defense of Taser International Inc.'s non-lethal stun weapons. The Pacing and Clinical Electrophysiology Journal and the Pentagon said the weapons are safe to use. Taser surged $3.68, or 21.6 percent, to $20.69.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies was up 0.38, or 0.1 percent, at 613.57.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 0.83 percent. In afternoon trading, Britain's FTSE 100 was up 0.32 percent, Germany's DAX index climbed 0.29 percent, and France's CAC-40 gained 0.43 percent