中国经济预测让华尔街受惊

The first trading dayof the week finished with a modest sell-off amid worries of slower economicgrowth. It was data out of China which set the tone for Wall Street. Beijing downgraded its economic growth projections to 7.5% for 2012, putting China on trackfor its weakest growth in eight years. Not even figures showing the US servicesector grew in February at its fastest pace in a year was enough to undo globaleconomic jitters.

Company watchers were focused on Yahoo. According to a technology blog, the former internet darling is preparing a major restructuring that could result inthousands of job cuts. The announcement could come as early as the end of thismonth according to blog allthingsdigital.com. When asked to comment, Yahoo saidin an email statement: "Our leadership is engaged in a process that willgenerate significant strategic change at Yahoo." But the company declinedfurther comment.

Back to Wall Street and the final numbers. The Dow dropped 14 points. TheS&P 500 was down 5 points. And the Nasdaq gave up 25 points. Stocks weredown in Europe as well with investors nervous about Greece's efforts torestructure government debt. Germany shed 54 points. France lost 13 points. Andin the UK, stocks were down 36 points.