The Dow lost 172.45 points, or 1.4 percent, to 11,951.91 at 4 p.m. in New York, its first dip below 12,000 since March, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 1.4 percent to 1,270.98. Ten-year Treasury yields lost three basis points to 2.97 percent, the Dollar Index rose for a third day and the yen strengthened against all 16 major peers. The cost of insuring Greek and Portuguese debt rose to records amid lingering concern over Europe’s debt crisis. Oil sank below $100 a barrel.
U.S. equity benchmark indexes are threatening to erase gains for the year amid concern the economic recovery is weakening. The S&P 500 trimmed its 2011 advance to 1.1 percent today and the MSCI World Index is up 0.6 percent. The Russell 2000 Index of small U.S. stocks and the Nasdaq Composite Index both erased their gains for 2011 today.
“The big question mark for investors is -- is this simply a transitory soft patch?” said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Philadelphia-based Janney Montgomery Scott LLC, which manages $54 billion. “Or, if not, will this begin to weigh on corporate profits in a slow economic growth environment, and therefore equity valuations will have to be adjusted? Right now the market is saying the latter.”
READ MORE: Bloomberg