February 14, 2013- Stocks Show Modest Weakness on Global Economic Concerns

While selling pressure has waned from earlier in the session, stocks are seeing modest weakness in mid-day trading on Thursday. Concerns about the strength of the global economy continue to weigh on investor sentiment. The major averages have climbed well off their worst levels of the day but are currently all in the red. The Dow is down 17.66 points or 0.1 percent at 13,965.25, the Nasdaq is down 2.56 points or 0.1 percent at 3,194.32 and the S&P 500 is down 0.90 points or 0.1 percent at 1,519.43. The modest weakness on Wall Street come as reports showing contractions in fourth quarter GDP in Germany, France, and Japan have led to renewed concerns about the global economy. The reports showed that German GDP fell by 0.6 percent in the fourth quarter, while French GDP dropped by 0.3 percent. Both decreases were slightly steeper than expected. A separate report showed that Japanese GDP edged down by 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter compared to economist estimates for 0.1 percent growth.