Skip to main content

A trader speaks on a headset while waiting for the close of the New York Stock Exchange in New York, in this file photo.LUCAS JACKSON/Reuters

There wasn't much good to say about the last trading day of May or, for that matter, about the entire month.

Investors decided Thursday that with continuing turmoil in Europe and disappointing U.S. economic reports, nothing justified significantly reversing Wednesday's declines.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed at 12,393.45, down 26.41 points or 0.2 per cent. The broader S&P 500 closed at 1,310.33, down 2.99 points or 0.2 per cent.

In Canada, the S&P/TSX composite index reversed early declines and closed at 11,511.80, up 78.58 points or 0.7 per cent.

It could have been worse for the U.S. indexes: At its Thursday low, the Dow was down nearly 100 points, while the S&P 500 dipped below 1,300, a 1 per cent decline from Wednesday's close.

Thursday's results locked in May declines of 6 per cent to 7 per cent for the major indices. They were the worst monthly losses in two years.

There were only five up days for the Dow in the entire month — the first time in 43 years that has happened, U.S. cable-channel CNBC noted.

The worries over Europe focused on whether Spain — a much larger economy than basket case Greece — will follow the latter into insolvency.

"The euro zone is at a cross roads and deeper integration is the only way out of the crisis," economist Natascha Gewaltig of Action Economics said Thursday. "Alternatives are a break up or unconditional financing by the ECB, or wide ranging wealth redistribution, which in the best case will buy time, but not solve the underlying problems especially in crisis countries."

U.S. economic data provided no respite. The ADP national employment report, a monthly number published by a major private-sector business-services company that's intended to preview the official U.S. government figures, came in at a gain of 133,000 jobs.

That figure disappointed, says BMO's Jennifer Lee, and further bad news came from a rise in unemployment claims, and a downward revision in first-quarter GDP.

The top performer on the TSX was CGI Group Inc., which pleased investors with its $2.8-billion deal to buy Logica. The company's shares gained 14 per cent to $23.95. Dollarama continued its multi-year climb by gaining 4.1 per cent to $57.20.







Follow related authors and topics

Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following.

Interact with The Globe