G-20 talks help push stocks lower

NEW YORK – The stock market recorded its biggest weekly drop in three months as a feeling of malaise took over after the U.S. failed to rally world leaders to come up with plans to strengthen global growth.

“The G-20 wasn’t much of a success for the U.S.,” said Kim Caughey Forrest, equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group. “There’s a sense that nobody really has the ideas on how to get us out of here.”

On Friday, stocks and commodities took another nose dive on worries that China might put the brakes on its surging economy. Any cooling of China’s economy would slow down demand for raw materials, and that sent prices of oil, metals and grains tumbling.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 90.52, to 11,192.58, led by sharp losses in energy and materials stocks. Construction giant Caterpillar Inc., which has huge operations in China, fell 1.40 percent to $81.04 and oil company ExxonMobil Corp. fell 0.84 percent to $70.99.

The Chinese government said that the pace of inflation hit a more than two-year high in October. The markets took that as a signal that China would hike rates to tamp down inflation. It led to a sell-off in global markets, from China to the U.S. The Shanghai composite index plummeted 5.2 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.9 percent.

Gold fell $37.80, or 2.7 percent, to $1,365.50 an ounce. Crude oil fell $2.93, or 3.3 percent, to $84.88 a barrel, while soybeans plummeted 70 cents, or 5.2 percent, to $12.69 a bushel.

The dollar resumed its slide against other major currencies. It had rallied in recent days, particularly against the euro, as Ireland’s debt crunch renewed worries about the European financial system. A fiscal crisis in Greece this spring helped bring down stocks around the world, and investors are hoping Ireland can right its own finances without having to seek a bailout as Greece did.