Markets slide
NEW YORK, July 16 (UPI) -- U.S. stocks retreated Monday after stocks tumbled in China where the rate of economic expansion remains under scrutiny.
Although the Chinese economy continues to grow, Premier Wen Jiabao warned during the weekend economic hardships in China are not over. The remarks sent Chinese stocks down 1.74 percent on the Shanghai composite index.
In early afternoon trading in New York, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 62.67 points or 0.49 percent to 12,714.42. The Nasdaq composite was off by 12.08 points or 0.42 percent to 2,896.39. The Standard & Poor's 500 index shed 4.68 points or 0.34 percent to 1,352.10.
The benchmark 10-year U.S. treasury note rose 11/32 to yield 1.453 percent.
The euro rose $1.2256 against the U.S. dollar from Friday's $1.2248. Against the yen, the dollar fell to 78.83 from Friday's 79.2.
In Japan, markets were closed for a holiday.
In London, the FTSE 100 index was flat, falling 0.07 percent, 3.70 points, to 5,662.43.
NABE panelists downbeat about job growth
ARLINGTON, Va., July 16 (UPI) -- Prospects for U.S. jobs growth appear worse than three months ago amid fears the economy is souring, a survey of economists and policymakers indicated Monday.
About 23 percent of National Association for Business Economics panelists said in a July survey they thought U.S. employment would rise over the next six months, down from the 39 percent who expressed this view in April and 27 percent in January.
Forty-three percent said they held this view in July 2011.
The downbeat job-growth forecast follows last week's release of minutes from a June 19-20 Federal Reserve meeting in which officials agreed unemployment would remain elevated for another five to six years.
The economy added 80,000 jobs in June and the unemployment rate remained at 8.2 percent, the U.S. Labor Department said July 6.
The NABE survey forecast also follows a report from the Economic Cycle Research Institute, a New York-based independent forecasting group, that said an economic contraction was imminent.
"We have not seen a slowdown where year-over-year payroll job growth has dropped this low without a recession," the institute said in a May report that its co-founder reiterated Tuesday -- although the institute said Friday an economic-growth indicator rose to an eight-week high and annualized growth rose to a five-week high.
The NABE survey results also "suggest worsening economic conditions through increased flatness in sales and profit margins, ... weakening optimism concerning real [gross domestic product] growth and rising concerns about the impact of the European crisis," although U.S. inflation is unlikely, association member and National Defense University industry and business Professor Nayantara Hensel said in a statement.
Real GDP is the value of all goods and services produced in the United States in a given year, adjusted for inflation. GDP is the single most comprehensive indicator of the economy's health.
NABE panelists also expressed concerns about a sales downturn if Bush-era tax cuts expire in December and automatic government spending cuts take place in January.
Sixty-five percent said they expected sales would fall under this scenario, while 30 percent said they expected sales would stay the same.
The July industry survey of 67 NABE members was conducted June 14-26.
Tech industry layoffs on the rise
CHICAGO, July 16 (UPI) -- Job cut announcements made by U.S. technology companies rose to the highest level in three years in January through June, a private research firm said Monday.
Challenger, Gray & Christmas said technology companies announced 51,529 job cuts January through June of 2012, up 260 percent from the first half of 2011, when layoff announcements from technology companies stood at 14,308.
The difference is easy to pinpoint. One company, computer giant Hewlett-Packard announced in the first quarter of the year that it planned to layoff 30,000 workers.
That still leaves an increase in layoffs for the first half of 2012 for the sector -- 21,529 in 2012 versus 14,308 in the first half of 2011.
Hewlett-Packard tipped the scales so severely that its announcement came to more than twice the number of layoffs announced by computer companies in all of 2011, which came to 14,677.
Announced layoffs also jumped in the first half of the year among telecommunications companies, which announced 13,059 job cuts in the first half of the year, compared to 6,813 in the first half of 2011.
For electronics companies, layoffs have been flat this year, compared to the previous year.
"Announced in March, the decision by Hewlett-Packard to shed 30,000 jobs from its payrolls this year was driven primarily by the firm's loss of competitiveness across several of its business areas. Many point to its inability to compete with Apple on the tablet front, while failing to keep up with IBM and Accenture on the consulting side," said Chief Executive Officer John Challenger.
EU trade gap shrunk in May
BRUSSELS, July 16 (UPI) -- The 27-member European Union posted a $4.6 billion deficit on trade in goods in May, a sharp decline from April, Eurostat said Monday.
In the prior month, the deficit stood at $15.4 billion. A year earlier in May, the deficit stood at $17.7 billion.
While the larger EU had a loss, the 17-member eurozone, countries that share the euro as currency, posted a surplus of $8.4 billion, up from April's $6.5 billion surplus.
The surplus for the currency region compares to a deficit of $1.4 billion in May 2011.
For the EU, the energy deficit came to $177.3 billion for January through April of 2011. A year earlier across the same period, the energy deficit was $154.1 billion.
EU exports jumped notably with Russia, up 19 percent and Brazil, up 18 percent. In trades with most countries, exports rose. Exports shrank in trades with Turkey, off 5 percent, and India, down 1 percent.
Imports increased in trading with Norway, up 13 percent, the United States, up 8 percent, and Russia, up 7 percent.
