Wall St. ends lower on angst over Portugals bank woes reuters/article/2014/07/10/us-markets-stocks-idUSKBN0FF18H20140710 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks dropped on Thursday as concerns about the financial health of Portugals top listed bank gave investors a reason to cash in recent gains. With the Dow and the S&P 500 near record highs, the slide in Europe triggered by financial shares quickly translated into broad selling on Wall Street. The S&P 500 briefly lost 1 percent earlier, a daily drop the benchmark has not seen since April 10. Espirito Santo Financial Group, the largest shareholder in Portugals Banco Espirito Santo, suspended trading in its shares and bonds, citing material difficulties at parent company ESI. The banks shares tumbled 17.2 percent. Portugals benchmark stock index fell 4.2 percent and Italys FTSE MIB slid 1.9 percent. The S&P 500 financial sector index fell 0.5 percent. Wells Fargo & Co, a component of the S&P financial index, fell 0.7 percent to $51.81. The bank will report earnings on Friday. The S&P utilities index and the S&P telecom index, defensive plays favored for their relatively high dividends, rose 0.6 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 70.54 points or 0.42 percent, to 16,915.07. The S&P 500 slid 8.15 points or 0.41 percent, to 1,964.68. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 22.83 points or 0.52 percent, to 4,396.20. With Thursdays decline, the S&P 500 was down 1 percent for the week and on track for its biggest weekly loss since April. The Dow fell as much as 180.23 points shortly after the opening bell and then recovered to close about 85 points below the 17,000 milestone reached last week. Just a week ago, the Dow closed above 17,000 for the first time, ending at a record of 17,068.26, while the S&P 500 ended at an all-time high of 1,985.44. Billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn said on Thursday that it is time for investors to tread carefully after the run-up in U.S. stock markets.
Posted on: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 08:34:40 +0000
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