Europe debt worries sink US stocks

NEW YORK: US stocks slid Monday, snapping a five-session winning streak as traders worried about a possible Greek public debt default and eurozone inaction to confront the crisis.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average skidded 108.08 points (0.94 percent) to finish at 11,401.01.

The broader S&P 500 dropped 11.92 points (0.98 percent) to 1,204.09, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 9.48 points (0.36 percent) to 2,612.83.

Wall Street was firmly in sell mode after European Union finance ministers over the weekend failed to find a convincing way to tackle Greece's sovereign debt crisis.

"The negative sentiment came courtesy of continued concerns surrounding the European debt debacle, as a weekend summit between European officials failed to inspire optimism of the leaders' ability to solve the dilemma," Charles Schwab analysts said in a client note.

The indexes trimmed heavy earlier losses after the Greek finance ministry reported "productive and substantive" talks with its lenders, the EU, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank, to hammer out a response to serious slippage from agreed budget targets.

Markets were increasingly expecting Greece to default on its debt.

Financials were under pressure from the uncertainties linked to the European crisis: Bank of America shed 3.3 percent, JPMorgan Chase fell 2.8 percent and Citigroup dived 4.4 percent.

Reinsurance company Transatlantic fell two percent after a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary, National Indemnity, reiterated its takeover bid despite already being rejected once.

Netflix extended last week's losses, tumbling 7.4 percent after its chief executive Reed Hastings acknowledged that he "messed up" the movie giant's new pricing scheme.

Bucking the downtrend was Tyco International, up 2.4 percent at $45.50 after announcing plans to split into three publicly traded companies.

The selloff came after five straight winning sessions, only the second such rally this year, that had left the three main indexes up more than five percent over the week.

Bond prices rose. The 10-year Treasury bond yield fell to 1.94 percent from 2.08 percent Friday, while the 30-year bond dropped to 3.19 percent from 3.34 percent.

Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011