* Market’s focus shifts to earnings from jobs data
* China’s PPI drops, raising worries of slowing demand
* AOL shares soar on Microsoft patents deal
* Dow off 0.8 pct, S&P; 500 off 1 pct, Nasdaq off 0.9 pct
By Angela Moon
NEW YORK, April 9 (Reuters) – U.S. stocks fell on Monday but
pulled off their lows by mid-session, suggesting the market is
shrugging off the weaker-than-expected jobs data that pushed
major indexes down more than 1 percent earlier.
The S&P; 500 slid to its lowest point in more than three
weeks, but recovered some of that lost ground in afternoon trade
and held well above its 50-day moving average near 1,371.
“We have reacted to the weak unemployment numbers, and now
we are shifting focus to earnings, especially the banks later in
the week,” said Paul Nolte, managing director of Dearborn
Partners in Chicago.
U.S. non-farm payrolls added 120,000 jobs in March, far
below the forecast gain of 203,000 jobs, Labor Department data
released on Friday showed. The U.S. unemployment rate slipped to
8.2 percent in March from February’s 8.3 percent.
The payrolls report cast doubts on the United States’
ability to help bolster the global economy as Europe’s debt
crisis resurfaces and worries remain whether China’s economy
will avoid a hard landing. But at the same time, it renewed
hopes for more monetary stimulus from the Federal Reserve.
China’s surprisingly soft producer prices data sparked
concerns about waning demand in the world’s second-largest
economy. The country’s March PPI data reinforced expectations
that a cooling economy has eclipsed inflation as the Chinese
government’s biggest near-term worry.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 99.56
points, or 0.76 percent, at 12,962.59. The Standard & Poor’s 500
Index was down 13.51 points, or 0.97 percent, at
1,384.57. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 26.66
points, or 0.87 percent, at 3,053.84.
The S&P; 500 touched an intraday low at 1,378.24.
Following last week’s modest losses, the S&P; 500’s key
near-term support levels were 1,375 to 1,380, which were its
resistance levels in late February, said Scott Davies, an
analyst at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co in New York.
Banks’ and industrials’ shares led the S&P; 500’s decline,
with the S&P; financial sector index and the S&P;
industrial sector index each down 1.5 percent.
U.S. equities have rallied sharply in recent months, with
the S&P; 500 climbing nearly 30 percent from its early October
closing low to end a week ago at nearly a four-year high . The
market has stalled in the last few weeks as investors have
questioned how quickly the gains have come and whether economic
data is strong enough to warrant higher stock prices.
Earnings will come to the fore this week, with bellwethers
Google Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co scheduled to
report results. Alcoa will be the first Dow component to
report results, with earnings due after Tuesday’s closing bell.
AOL shares touched a lifetime high of $27.47 earlier
in the session and then eased slightly to $27.18 – a jump of
nearly 48 percent – after the Internet company said it would
sell more than 800 of its patents and related applications to
Microsoft, and grant Microsoft a non-exclusive license
to patents it retains for slightly over $1 billion in cash.
Molina Healthcare Inc shares plunged 24.6 percent to
$26.40 after the health insurer said its Medicaid contract in
Ohio will not be renewed.
