U.S. Markets Continue to Fall While Jobless Claims Rise (CSCO)

It looked like it was going to be another severe hemorrhaging session for the Dow Jones Industrial Average this morning when the market opened and the Dow immediately fell over 100 points. This drop may have been influenced by the Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ: CSCO) CEO who commented that the continuing uncertainty in the economy was “unusual.” Interestingly it seems that any unusual uncertainty in the market did not affect CSCO’s fourth quarter 2010 net sales which were up 27% from the same quarter of 2009.

The Labor Department reported another rise in jobless claims during the first week of August, further supporting the growing belief that the economy is on shaky ground and growth is slowing. Though the market was choppy after this news the Dow ended up reducing some of its early morning losses to fall 58.8 points and close at 10,320.03. The S&P 500 fell 5.87 points to 1,083.59 and the Nasdaq fell 18.36 points to 2,190.27

European markets were mixed on Thursday after The Bank of England reduced its forecasted economic growth citing the unsure pace of economic recovery within Europe and the U.S. as its reason. Asian markets were down.