US Stocks Erase Yearly Gain as S&P 500 Moves Least Since 1947
20.05.12
Dec. 31 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks fell this week, leaving the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index virtually unchanged for the year, as concern Europe’s debt crisis will weigh on the economy halted a two-year rally in equities.
The benchmark gauge for U.S. equities lost 0.04 point to 1,257.60 in 2011, the smallest annual change since 1947. Financial shares slid 1.3 percent in the week and 18 percent this year, the worst drop among 10 industries, as Bank of America Corp. tumbled 58 percent. Commodity producers fell 12 percent as a group. First Solar Inc. had the biggest drop in the S&P 500, losing 74 percent, followed by coal producer Alpha Natural Resources Inc. with a 66 percent loss.
Gauges of health-care companies, utilities and makers of household products and other consumer staples climbed more than 10 percent this year as investors bought companies whose profits are least-tied to economic growth. Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. in Houston rose 101 percent in 2011 for the gauge’s biggest rally, followed by pipeline owner El Paso Corp. and Sunnyvale, California-based medical device maker Intuitive Surgical Inc.
Source: BusinessWeek