United States stocks fell on Friday from near record levels as a drop in JPMorgan Chase led a pause in the market’s 10-day rally.
Reuters reported that with the pullback in US stock prices, the Dow Jones industrial average was in danger of ending its recent winning streak, while European shares retreated from 4-1/2-year highs.
Investors shifted some money into safe-haven gold and US and German government debt ahead of the weekend.
Evidence of an improving US economy, together with supply concerns from the Middle East, boosted oil prices in London briefly back above $110 a barrel.
As the US jobs picture brightens despite tax increases and government spending cuts, some analysts remain upbeat about the longer-term prospects for stocks.
“I don’t think that one or two days’ movement is really going to change the underlying momentum of this market, which I still think is pretty strong at this point,” the director of asset allocation at Wilmington Trust Investment Advisors in Wilmington, Delaware, Mr. Cam Albright, said.
In addition to signs of the labor market picking up steam, data on Friday showed continued growth in US manufacturing, although optimism was muted by news of a stronger-than-expected 0.7 per cent rise in consumer inflation in February and a surprise deterioration in consumer confidence.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down by 45.37 points, or 0.31 per cent, at 14,493.77. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell by 4.20 points, or 0.27 per cent, at 1,559.03.