US stocks skid Thursday

U.S. stock indexes fell Thursday in New York despite the sharpest rise in consumer spending in five months in July. The Commerce Department said consumer spending, which makes up about 70 percent of the country's gross domestic product, rose 0.4 percent in July after rising less than 0.1 percent in June. The Labor Department said first time claims for unemployment benefits came in a 374,000 in the week ending Saturday, unchanged from the previous week. By close of trading on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average shed 106.77 points to 13,000.71, off 0.81 percent. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index lost 32.48 points to 3,048.71, off 1.05 percent. The Standard and Poor's 500 gave up 11.01 points to 1,399.48, off 0.78 percent. On the New York Stock Exchange, 853 stocks advanced and 2,110 declined on a volume of 2.3 billion shares traded. The benchmark 10-year treasury rose 8/32, yielding 1.628 percent. The euro fell to $1.2506 from Wednesday's $1.253. Against the yen, the dollar fell to 78.66 yen from 78.71 yen. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 255 index lost 0.95 percent, 86.03 points, to 8,983.78. In London, the FTSE 100 index lost 0.42 percent, 24.08, to 5,719.45.