Consumer, tech stocks

The technology-heavy Nasdaq led U.S. stocks lower on Thursday as investors continued to fret about weakness in the global economy and Wall Street looked set to limp to its worst quarter in three years.

A vote by German lawmakers to beef up the crisis-hit euro zone's bailout package as well as better-than-expected data from the U.S. labor market did little to boost confidence beyond an early lift that eroded throughout the day.
The S&P consumer discretionary sector index led losses with sharp falls in luxury goods names Tiffany & Co, down 8 percent at $63.91, and Coach down 7 percent at $53.46 as investors worried about a slowdown in China. On Thursday, China's benchmark stock index ended at a 15-month low.
"The general sentiment is that things are not all said and done," said Joseph Greco, managing director at Meridian Equity Partners in New York. "There are still big concerns about the consumer, about the housing market and labor market, about Europe."
Chinese Internet search engine Baidu, down 10.8 at $108.30, and other U.S.-listed Chinese companies were among the biggest losers after a securities regulator said the U.S.
Justice Department was investigating accounting irregularities at Chinese companies listed on U.S. exchanges.
The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 24.63 points, or 0.22 percent, to 10,986.27. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index shed 8.77 points, or 0.76 percent, to 1,142.29. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 49.94 points, or 2.00 percent, to 2,441.64.
Tech names pressured the Nasdaq, with Amazon.com Inc off 4.4 percent at $219.54 following a sharp rally in Wednesday's session. Advanced Micro Devices sank 16.2 percent to $5.15 after cutting its third-quarter revenue outlook, prompting many analysts to downgrade their views on the stock.
Other big-cap Internet names were also down. Netflix Inc sank 12.9 percent to $110.75 while Yahoo Inc lost 6.6 percent to $13.26.
Market volatility is likely to remain high as traders react to European headlines and attempt to gauge the commitment of governments and institutions as they work to prevent a Greek default. End-of-quarter repositioning will also influence market movement.
The benchmark S&P 500 index is expected to finish the year down for the first time in three years as an escalating European debt crisis and stalled U.S. economy led strategists to slash forecasts in the latest Reuters poll.

Gold holds gains

Gold jumped more than 1 percent on Friday after Germany's approval for expanding the euro zone bailout fund offered temporary relief to investors, but the precious metal was heading for its worst monthly decline in three years.

With the euro debt crisis unlikely to be resolved any time soon, investors have shifted their attention to Greece, which demands more far-reaching measures to prevent the crisis that started in Athens from spreading far beyond Europe.
Spot gold added $12.34 an ounce to $1,626.39 an ounce by 0328 GMT. Despite the gain, prices were headed for a monthly fall of 11 percent, their worst since October 2008 when they tumbled 17 percent after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
"It seems that there are still hurdles ahead before the European debt crisis is resolved," said Ong Yi Ling, an analyst at Phillip Futures in Singapore.
"By mid-October, Greece will start to run out of money and has to receive the next tranche of aid to avoid bankruptcy. I think the outlook for the euro zone is still uncertain. The successful German vote provides a temporary bout of optimism and more decisive policy action is still needed."
Gold rallied to a lifetime high around $1,920 an ounce in early September after the euro fell against the dollar on growing doubts about Europe's ability to solve its debt crisis.
Asian stocks steadied on Friday but investors could take profits after three days of gains, while the euro held its tiny increase following Germany's approval of the bailout fund expansion.
The euro hovered above a eight-month low versus the dollar after German Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition party voted on Thursday to enhance the European Financial Stability Facility's powers.
U.S. gold rose $10.6 an ounce to $1,627.90.
Holdings of the largest gold-backed exchange-traded-fund (ETF), New York's SPDR Gold Trust, fell 0.80 percent, and those of the largest silver-backed ETF, New York's iShares Silver Trust dipped 0.23 percent from Wednesday to Thursday.
The physical sector saw a buzz of activity in Hong Kong, with jewellers from China stocking up before the Golden Week holiday next week. Premiums for gold bars were steady at a 7-month high at $3 an ounce.
"Buying interest is still strong and people are rushing to stock up a bit before the holiday in China. We don't have much stock of gold bars, though," said a dealer in Hong Kong.
"There's also Indian buying because of the wedding season."
In top consumer India, retail gold demand traditionally gains pace from the month of August, when the festival and wedding seasons start, culminating with Diwali, the Hindu festival of light.
Gold jewellery is an essential part of the dowry basket Indian parents give their daughters at weddings.
In other markets, Brent crude rose above $104 a barrel on positive economic news, but prices this quarter remain on track for their biggest drop in 15 months on concerns that a slowing global economy will undercut fuel demand.
London copper fell 1 percent on Friday, heading for its worst month in three years on concerns that a global economic slowdown will hit demand.

Nokia to cut 3,500 jobs

Nokia Oyj, the world's largest cellphone vendor by volume, is cutting 3,500 jobs in its second major restructuring in six months as it struggles with falling sales and profits.

Chief executive Stephen Elop, who took over at Nokia a year ago, unveiled the plans which include a factory closure and a new executive chairman for telecom gear joint venture Nokia Siemens Networks, on Thursday.
The company said it would close the Cluj factory in Romania which opened just four years ago and manufactured more simple cellphone models, leading to 2,200 job losses.
The plant turnover was comparable to 1.3 percent of Romania's GDP last year, but Eastern European investment group Avaron said due to large component flows the value created at the plant was smaller, giving a rough estimate of around 0.25 percent of GDP.
Nokia said a further 1,300 jobs would be cut at its Location & Commerce business unit, which includes the world's largest digital mapping business Navteq.
Nokia said it was also evaluating the future of its plants in Finland, Mexico and Hungary and this would result in job cuts next year.
The latest redundancies come on top of cost cut plans set out in April which included laying off 4,000 staff. Thursday's cuts are included in Nokia's savings target of more than one billion euros, which was unveiled in July.
"This is very shocking. As if they had no policy at all in human resources, only lay-off talks rolling all the time. I wonder how people can work there, how people can focus at all," Pertti Porokari, the chairman of Finnish engineers' union (UIL), told Reuters.
"For sure the company is going through a massive reform, but it feels like the new direction is not quite under control."
Nokia has struggled this year with falling sales and profits after the group said in February it would switch to Microsoft Corp software for its smartphones, but the first of these models will reach the market only later this year.
"We are seeing solid progress against our strategy, and with these planned changes we will emerge as a more dynamic, nimble and efficient challenger," Elop, Nokia's first foreign chief executive, said in a statement.
Nokia's share price has halved since it announced the Microsoft deal on worries the company will lose so much market share before the new phones come out that it might never make up lost ground.
Nokia's quarterly phone sales to end-June dropped 20 percent at a time when market grew 10 percent, and its 15-year reign at the top of the smartphone market ended as both Apple and Samsung Electronics surpassed it.
"Now the volume has come down, clearly Nokia is looking for new saving targets," said analyst Jari Honko from Swedbank in Helsinki.
"I hope this extensive review does not mean that Nokia has lost so much scale that in-house production will no longer be competitive. It has been the most important strengths of Nokia," Honko said.
The shares were flat at 4.18 euros by 1100 GMT, in line with the sector.
Separately, Nokia supplier Digia said it had agreed to cut 170 jobs in its Finnish operations, and could cut up to 80 more as it revamped its business.
Nokia also said it and Siemens AG will both inject 500 million euros ($680 million) into their 50:50 telecom gear joint venture Nokia Siemens Networks.
Jesper Ovesen would take over as executive chairman of Nokia Siemens Networks, replacing former Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, Nokia said.
Ovesen, who has worked as chief financial officer at many top Danish firms helped to turn Lego around during his spell as CFO of the toy group in 2003-2007 and took telecoms operator TDC public late last year.
Siemens and Nokia would like to take Nokia Siemens Networks public at some point, but the company has struggled to report profits, battling against aggressive rivals Huawei and Ericsson.
Separately, Nokia Siemens said it has won an order from Bharti Airtel to upgrade, build and manage networks in seven African countries.

Delays Second England-India One-Dayer

The second one-day international between England and India here on Tuesday was delayed by rain.

The 50-over match had been scheduled to start at 1400BST (1300GMT).
If the match does get underway, England will have Graeme Swann available after he shook off the virus that saw him miss the first match of the series in Durham, which also fell victim to rain.
But the tourists, who have had eight players injured this summer, will have to do without Sachin Tendulkar, who will miss the rest of the series with a toe injury.
Teams
England (from): A. Cook (capt), C. Kieswetter, I. Trott, I. Bell, E. Morgan, B. Stokes, T. Bresnan, S. Broad, G. Swann, J. Anderson, J. Dernbach, S. Patel, R. Bopara, S. Finn
India (from): M. Dhoni (capt), P. Patel, A. Rahane, R. Dravid, V. Kohli, S. Raina, P. Kumar, R. Ashwin, R. Vinay Kumar, M. Patel, A. Mishra, V. Aaron, R. Singh, M. Tiwary
Umpires: Billy Doctrove (WIS) and Rob Bailey (ENG) Third umpire: Marais Erasmus (RSA) Match referee: Jeff Crowe (NZ)
Series: 0-0
Results so far:
3 Sept 1st ODI Durham No result
To play:
9 Sept 3rd ODI The Oval
11 Sept 4th ODI Lord's
16 Sept 5th ODI Cardiff