U.S. stocks pare slide amid concerns over jobs, Greece
U.S. stocks closed with moderate losses Thursday, hurt by investors’ worries about the U.S. jobs picture and sovereign debt in Europe.

The major indexes recovered from a deeper swoon after the euro rose against the dollar, encouraging some traders to take on risk in stocks and commodities. But the trading session’s overall tone was bearish, with weak jobless-claims data renewing worries about the pace of the U.S. economic recovery, while comments by Moody’s Investors Service kept long-term concerns about Greece’s creditworthiness alive
The Dow Jones Industrial Average /quotes/comstock/10w!i:dji/delayed  (INDU  10,321, -53.05, -0.51%)  ended down 53.13 points, or 0.5%, at 10,321.03. At its late-morning low, it was off more than 188 points.

The Nasdaq Composite /quotes/comstock/10y!i:comp (COMP 2,234, -1.68, -0.08%) slipped 0.1%, while the Standard & Poor’s 500-share index /quotes/comstock/21z!i1:in\x (SPX 1,103, -2.31, -0.21%) fell 0.2%, hurt by selling in every sector.

With one trading session to go in February, the Dow is now up 2.5% for the month, which has seen a marked increase in volatility. Traders say the U.S. has regained some of its safe-haven status lately, but few are willing to bet that a full-blown bull market is back.

“A lot of portfolio managers are just sitting on their hands, building cash in their portfolios because they feel like they’re getting conflicting signals about the economy,” said John Bollinger, president of Bollinger Capital Management, in Manhattan Beach, Calif.

“Unfortunately, it will probably take some improvement in the jobs picture to get people the kind of certainty they’re looking for.”

Investors received evidence of just the opposite as the Labor Department said that weekly jobless claims unexpectedly surged last week by 22,000 to 496,000, their highest level in over three months. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected initial claims would drop to 460,000 in the week ended Feb. 20. Read more on jobless claims.

The four-week average of claims, viewed as a more dependable barometer of the job market than volatile week-to-week readings, shook investors. The four-week average rose by 6,000 to a total of 473,750, up from the previous week’s revised average 467,750.
The U.S. Dollar Index /quotes/comstock/11j!i:dxy0  (DXY  80.64, -0.14, -0.18%) , which posted gains early in the session, reversed course to post a 0.2% decline. One euro cost $1.3557, up from $1.3534 late Wednesday, helped by the unwinding of bearish bets made earlier in the month when questions began to swirl about Greece’s heavy debt load. Read more on currencies.

“It looks like we’re just experiencing some exhaustion in the euro, since so many speculators had gotten to one side of the market,” said James Dailey, chief investment officer at the portfolio-management firm TEAM Financial.

The dollar’s reversal helped commodities, which are traded globally in terms of the U.S. currency. The Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index ended down 1.3%, improving from a decline of nearly 3% at its late-morning low.

Oil futures fell, but gold contracts snapped a three-day losing streak, rising $11.30 to end at $1,107.80 per ounce in New York. Read more on oil and read more on gold.
Movers

The Dow’s biggest loser in percentage terms was Coca-Cola Co. /quotes/comstock/13*!ko/quotes/nls/ko (KO 53.09, -0.03, -0.06%) , off 3.7% after the soft-drink maker agreed to buy most of its largest bottler, Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!cce/quotes/nls/cce (CCE 25.44, -0.04, -0.16%) , in a deal estimated to be worth between $12 billion and $13 billion. Shares of the bottler surged 32.9%. Read story on Coca-Cola deal.

Palm Inc. /quotes/comstock/15*!palm/quotes/nls/palm (PALM 6.58, +0.05, +0.77%) shares tumbled 19.3% after the company acknowledged its new smart phones aren’t selling as well as hoped. Read more on Palm.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. /quotes/comstock/13*!jpm/quotes/nls/jpm (JPM 40.75, +0.11, +0.27%) shares slipped 0.5% after its investment banking chief said the bank expects a return on equity of 17% this year, down from 21% last year.

Tags | creditworthiness, dow jones, dow jones industrial, economic recovery, greece, investors service, jobless claims, losses, nasdaq composite, pace, risk, sovereign debt, stocks and commodities, swoon, trading session, worries