US stocks end rollercoaster day with loss

US stocks fell but finished off session lows on Monday, as weak manufacturing data and worries of potential downgrades to the US credit rating overpowered investor relief over the weekend's debt-ceiling deal. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 10.75 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 12,132.49, in a session that saw the measure briefly fall below 12,000 for the first time since late June. En route to its seventh straight decline, the blue-chip index had risen as much as 139.18 points immediately after the open, as investors expressed relief at the compromise hammered out late Sunday to raise the debt ceiling. But stocks turned negative after a reading on manufacturing in July showed barely any growth and renewed worries about the health of the US economy. The Dow fell by as many as 145.16 points mid-session. The action added to the index's biggest weekly point swoon since May 2010, which came as investors fretted last week that Washington had run out of time to meet the government's spending obligations past August 2. Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar. Related Coverage Putin: US an economic 'parasite' End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index lost 5.34 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 1286.94, for the sixth straight decline, with all sectors except utilities and telecommunications losing ground. The Nasdaq Composite shed 11.77 points, or 0.4 percent, to 2,744.61, its fifth drop in the last six sessions. The weak manufacturing data was a rebuke to investors who have been anticipating that the "soft patch" this year and the after-effects of Japan's earthquake and tsunami would give way to stronger growth in the second half. Meanwhile, despite a pact to raise the debt ceiling that was due for a vote in both chambers of Congress, investors continued to eye Washington with caution. "Wall Street doesn't work well with this kind of uncertainty," whether in the form of weak economic data or the state of the US debt negotiations, said Alan Valdes, director of floor trading at DME Securities. In corporate news, the US-listed shares of HSBC Holdings rose 1.6 per cent after the bank reported revenue for the first half of the year that exceeded estimates and said it was cutting about 30,000 jobs to revamp its global business.