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Wall Street tumbles on Europe, Intel's outlook

1 of 3. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange at the end of the trading day in New York, December 12, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Andrew Burton

NEW YORK | Mon Dec 12, 2011 5:37pm EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks tumbled on Monday, as concerns about Europe returned to the forefront after major credit ratings agencies warned that European leaders had not done enough to tackle the region's debt crisis.

The decline was broad. All l0 S&P industry groups ended in negative territory, and most dropped more than 1 percent. Banks took the biggest hit, while technology shares also fell after Dow component Intel, the world's largest chip maker, lowered expectations for quarterly revenue.

After initial elation on Friday over an agreement reached at an EU summit to enforce tighter budget control over the euro zone, the mood turned on Monday as more doubts arose over whether the measures would be sufficient to quell the euro zone debt crisis.

"The pact that was agreed upon by European officials still has a long way to go in order to come to fruition, and that leaves the market open to riot," said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia.

Fitch Ratings on Monday said failure by European Union leaders to come up with a "comprehensive" solution to the region's debt crisis has increased short-term pressure on debt ratings of euro zone countries.

Investors in Europe gave their verdict by spurning Spanish and Italian debt, causing borrowing costs to rise. The yield on Italy's benchmark 10-year note again came within range of 7 percent, the level considered a danger zone, but recovered to close at 6.60 percent.

"We're seeing that sentiment surface in Italian bond yields, and that suggests the market is still highly skeptical of any solution to the risk of significant default that could be brought forward in the coming days," Luschini said.

U.S. banks were among the worst performers on renewed concern that problems in Europe's financial system could spill over to U.S. institutions. The S&P financial sector .GSPF was down 2.6 percent while Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) slumped 4.7 percent to $5.45 and JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) lost 3.4 percent to $32.04.

Sentiment had been growing more positive over Europe recently, helping the S&P notch its second week of gains last week, but volatility remains high as market action continues to be dictated by the latest headline.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI was down 162.72 points, or 1.34 percent, at 12,021.54. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX was down 18.70 points, or 1.49 percent, at 1,236.49. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC was down 34.59 points, or 1.31 percent, at 2,612.26.

Intel Corp (INTC.O), a Dow component, fell 4 percent to $24.00 after cutting its fourth-quarter revenue forecast due to supply shortages of hard disk drives. Intel follows similar moves by DuPont (DD.N) and chip maker Texas Instruments Inc TXN.N, both of which cut their outlooks last week.

An index of semiconductor makers .SOX fell 2.8 percent.

Italian one-year borrowing costs stayed close to a record high at an auction. Yields on 10-year Italian bonds briefly threatened the 7 percent level, which is considerable a danger zone. An index of European equities .FTEU3 closed down about 1.9 percent.

Moody's and Fitch reminded markets on Monday that the deal on Europe reached last week was not enough to diminish the chance of sovereign ratings downgrades in the euro zone in the near- to mid-term. Last week, S&P put 15 euro zone countries on a watch for potential credit rating downgrades.

"There is probably yet another shock required before everybody in the euro zone reads from the same page," said Jean-Michel Six, chief economist at Standard & Poor's, on Monday.

Last week, the European Union decided to set stricter budget rules for the single currency area and to provide up to 200 billion euros in bilateral loans to the International Monetary Fund in response to the turmoil.

Resource-related stocks also tumbled as U.S. crude oil futures fell 1.3 percent and copper prices dropped 2.6 percent to a near two-week low on deepening concern over Europe. Energy shares .GSPE sank 2.4 percent while materials .GSPM lost 2.2 percent.

Alcoa Inc (AA.N) was off 3 percent to $9.35, and Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc (FCX.N) dropped 3 percent to $38.54. Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) slid 1.6 percent.

About four stocks fell for every one that rose on the New York Stock Exchange, while on the Nasdaq 72 percent of issues fell. Volume was light, with about 6.28 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, below last year's daily average of 8.47 billion.

(Reporting By Ryan Vlastelica; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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Comments (11)
yusa1928 wrote:
Gertrude Stein’s quote:
“Money is always there but the pockets change; it is not in the same pockets after a change, and that is all there is to say about money.”
If the US defaults on bonds, the US has the money that would have been paid if they did not default.
If the US pays the bonds at maturity, the bondholder has the money.
There are 7 billion people on earth now and more coming.
What does it matter who has the money?
Shakespear: “ What care I how fair she be, if she be not fair to me?
My opinion: “What care I which pockets are full, If mine are empty.
Here is the question…
Can a no-count worthless politician take money from the pocket of a yet unborn person, and enforce laws requiring that person to pay? I doubt it.
How immoral is that?
Obama and his predecessors have enslaved future generations with huge debts.
There is a 100% risk that the future generations will shrug off this nonsense.

Dec 12, 2011 8:43am EST  --  Report as abuse
Blackbeered wrote:
Be honest. Unless you interviewed everyone who traded futures this morning, you have NO idea why there are more sellers than buyers this morning.

But, with 9 am approaching, I guess you have to make something up.

Dec 12, 2011 9:13am EST  --  Report as abuse
irisbrock wrote:
There are few stocks you should never buy. One of them is INTEL. These guys are always blaming something or someone for their bad forecasts or bad performance. Time to change the CEO and CFO.

Dec 12, 2011 9:54am EST  --  Report as abuse
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