Wobbly Wall St.: Recession Fears Persist

 

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Fear of a global economic slowdown continued to buffet wobbly Wall St Frday, but most shares closed up, rebounding from their near free-fall of the last two days.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up by .34 percent. The Standard & Poors’ 500 Index closed up by .61 percent at 1,136.47. The rebound follows yesterday’s 391-point plunge in the Dow.

Declines earlier this week were the worst weekly drop drop in the S&P 500 since 2008.

The Stoxx Europe 50 Index, after an initial drop, closed up 1.52 percent, following a pledge by G-20 finance ministers that they stand ready to mount “a strong and coordinated” response to challenges facing the global economy.

Precious metals suffered. Gold closed at $1,649.50 the ounce, down 5.29 percent. Silver’s slide was the worst two-day decline in 31 years. Commodities fell on fears another global recession would dampen demand for metals, fuel and food.

The decline in global markets threatens to hurt quarterly results, due out next month, for Goldman Sachs Group, traditionally one of Wall St.’s strongest and most impregnable firms. A Goldman loss, expected by several analysts for the quarter ending in September, would be its first since the financial crisis.

Worries that the international debt crisis will worsen have reduced Goldman’s revenue from stock and bond deals, as well as from mergers.