NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
U.S. stocks tumbled early Monday, hit hard by geopolitical worries and higher oil prices.
After 10 minutes of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average (down 108.86 to 9904.01, Charts), the Standard & Poor's 500 (down 12.38 to 1083.32, Charts) index and the Nasdaq composite (down 27.98 to 1876.27, Charts) all fell sharply.
Stocks have stumbled for several weeks on a combination of worries about the likelihood of rising interest rates, higher oil prices and the events in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East.
Many of the same concerns weighed on the markets early Monday, but the geopolitical climate took center stage.
In particular, international markets were shaken following a suicide bombing in Baghdad that killed a the head of the Iraqi governing council, as well as a number of other Iraqis. The attack occurred not far from the American-led Coalition Provisional Authority headquarters.
Political turmoil in India following elections there added to the unease.
The unrest contributed to the rising price of oil. Light crude oil futures hit an all-time high of $41.83 overnight in response to concerns that supplies will be jeopardized by a potential attack on the Middle East oil infrastructure. Brent crude oil futures gained 9 cents to trade at $37.95 a barrel.
Among other commodities markets, COMEX gold rallied $4.40 to $381.50 an ounce.
Continued strength in the economic and earnings news was mostly shrugged off.
Released before the bell, the May NY Empire State index fell to 30.2 from a downwardly revised 34.1 in April. This was lower than expectations for a read of 34, but still showed a lot of strength in the manufacturing recovery.
Home improvement retailer Lowe's (LOW: unchanged at $50.58, Research, Estimates) reported a solid quarter, with earnings growing from a year earlier and topping estimates.
Treasury prices rallied, with the 10-year-note adding 1/2 of a point in price, pushing its yield down to 4.70 percent from 4.77 percent late Friday. The dollar fell versus the euro and yen.
In international trade, Asian markets closed lower, and European markets tumbled at midday there.
|
