(MENAFN- AFP) Wall Street stocks dropped early Friday as the Swiss franc's sharp surge continued to roil markets with the New York Stock Exchange suspending trade in one leading forex firm.
About 45 minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 17,262.26, down 58.45 points (0.34 percent).
The broad-based S&P 500 fell 2.74 (0.14 percent) to 1,989.93, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index slipped 2.28 (0.05 percent) to 4,568.54.
US stocks opened higher after dropping the last five days. However, equities soon turned negative.
The NYSE suspended shares of foreign-exchange broker FXCM after shares plunged nearly 90 percent in pre-market trade after it admitted that the sharp rise in the Swiss franc had possibly left it capital-short.
FXCM said clients lost hugely after the Swiss National Bank on Thursday loosened its cap on the franc's value, with their accounts short $225 million owed the company.
Interactive Brokers Group, another leading forex trading firm, dropped 6.3 after announcing that some clients suffered losses in excess of their deposits with the firm. These losses came to about $120 million, which the firm said amounted to less than 2.5 percent of its net worth.
Dow component Goldman Sachs dropped 2.5 percent as fourth-quarter net income declined 7.1 percent following a drop in trading revenues and underwriting. Earnings of $4.38 per share came in six cents above analyst expectations.
Dow component Intel fell 0.6 percent as the company forecast sales of $13.2-$14.2 billion in its current fiscal first quarter, while analysts have projected revenues of $13.77 billion.
Oil-services company Schlumberger rose 3.4 percent after it cut 9,000 jobs as it scaled back operations in response to lower investment from oil and gas exploration companies.
Precision Counterparts, which sells metal components to industrial companies, sank 12.7 percent after it warned of a big hit to results from a slowdown in the oil and gas sector. It projected earnings of $3.05-$3.10 per share, much below the $3.41 expected by analysts.
Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury rose to 1.76 percent from 1.73 percent Thursday, while the 30-year advanced to 2.39 percent from 2.37 percent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.
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