Europe's financial contagion has been catching Wall Street in its grip this week. The Dow today fell 135 points to 11,771. The S&P was down 21 points, while the Nasdaq slipped 52 points. For the key averages, the declines ranged between 1.1 to 2 percent.
- Gap reports a 36 percent drop in third-quarter profit, but slightly better than analysts expected on a per share basis. Deep discounting and higher production costs continue to crimp the retailing parent's performance.
- It is a sign that job market is improving, slowly. The Labor Department's weekly jobless claims figure today dropped to the lowest level since April. And, the number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits fell to 3.6 million, the fewest since Sept. 20, 2008.
- Oil prices today tumbled nearly 4 percent. The decline of $3.77 to $98.82 to reflects fears about the future of the European Union and the global economy.
- Popular online reviews site Yelp is going public, the latest in a slew of Internet businesses to do so. Yelp said in a filing that it plans to raise $100 million in an initial public offering.
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