US stocks mixed ahead of jobs report
New York (dpa) - US stocks were roughly even Thursday as US automakers reported a drop in sales and government figures suggested unemployment may rise.
General Motors Corp, Ford Motor Co and Japanese maker Toyota Motor Corp all reported a decline in US sales for December. Toyota landed in second place for the whole of 2007 in the US market, ahead of Ford for the first time.
Total annual sales fell 2.5 per cent from 2006, Bloomberg News reported. All three major carmakers predicted a difficult market environment for 2008.
Analysts predicted that the US unemployment rate will match its highest in two years, at 4.8 per cent, when the Labor Department reports for December on Friday.
The broader Standard & Poor's 500 was unchanged at 1,447.16. The blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 12.76 points or 0.1 per cent to 13,056.72. The high-tech Nasdaq Composite Index lost 6.95 points or 0.27 per cent to 2,602.68.
The US dollar fell to 67.84 euro cents from 67.93 euro cents on Wednesday, and to 109,54 Japanese yen from 109.73 yen on Wednesday.
Gold dropped 3.40 dollars to 865.70 dollars per fine ounce.
06:41 Jan 04, 2008
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