Video: Reuters Business Recap for the Week of October 1, 2007

Posted by Sun on October 6, 2007

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When the Dow hit the intra-day low of $12,455 on August 16, 1,545 points or 11% below its peak of 14,000, the talks were all about how the economy will slide into recession. And the 4,000 job losses in August’s payroll number made the recession look inevitable. Though the possibility is still there (former Fed chairman Greenspan saw the odds between 1/3 and 1/2), the markets seem already put the summer credit crisis behind as both the Dow and the S&P reached new highs this week, thanks to the August employment data. After all, the economy not only didn’t lose any jobs as previously estimated, but actually added 89,000 workers in August. However, without the initial weak report 30 days ago, we probably won’t get the 50 basis points rate cut on September 18 which fueled the biggest gain of stocks in four years, and there won’t be the upward revision on October 5 that sent the Dow and the S&P to record highs.

For the week, the S&P 500 gained 2% to 1557.59, the Dow rose 1.2% to 14,066.01, and the NASDAQ advanced 2.9% to 2780.32. Spot gold ended the week slightly low after reaching 28-year high of $748/ounce early in the week. For the week, spot gold was down $1.80 to close at $741.30 on Friday. Crude oil for December delivery lost 44 cents to settle at $81.22 per barrel

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