On Thursday the markets again declined due to renewed concerns about economic recovery, strengthening of dollar and bleak outlook of the technology sector.

The Dow Jones industrial average declined by 94 points(0.9%) to close at 10,332.4 points. The S&P 500 declined by 1.3% to close just below the all important  1,100 point level. The Nasdaq composite  which is heavily technology shares driven lost heavily by 36 points (1.6%) to close at 2,156.82.

Technology shares on Monday took a beating after Bank of America Merrill Lynch downgraded the  semiconductor industry. The semiconductor industry was downgraded after two key software companies issued not so positive profit outlooks for the fourth quarter. Stocks of chip makers Intel and AMD declined the most by more than 3% Also after the trading day ended Dell Inc came up with its third quarter results which was short of analyst expectation. The company reported a decline of 54% in net income to $337 million for the third quarter. Technology shares are expected to take a beating tomorrow also.

The stock markets were also brought down by a stronger dollar on Thursday. With dollar strengthening stock market falls as investors opt out of risky assets for assets that are considered to be safe. Also with a stronger dollar the price of oil declined by $2.12 to close at $77.46 a barrel. This decline in oil price brought down the shares of energy producers Chevron and Exxon Mobil.

Sector wise all sectors declined on Thursday with energy, financials and technology declining the maximum by 2.1%, 2% and 1.6% respectively. Other sectors which declined include industrials (decline of 1.5%), Materials (decline of 1.5%), Utilities (decline of 1.2%), Consumer Staples (decline of 1.2%), Telecom (decline of 0.7%) and Health Care (decline of 0.5%).

More or less it looks like the mood of the investor is to play safe. The recent economic data is not providing the right lead to the investors to take more risk in their portfolios. Also with the recent highs reached by the stock market the current fall is more or less expected as investors feel that the market has climbed up too fast without the right fundamentals.

On the economy front also there was not much positive news to lift the mood of the market. In the week ending November 14th the total number of jobless claims was 505,000 as against the forecast of 504,000 claims. On Wednesday the market fell on the back of weak housing market report. Overall the picture that comes out is that investors are not very confident about the current recovery and hence are shying out of risky assets.

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