Wall St falls on Greek default fears

US stocks extended their losses in heavy trading on Monday after a collapse in Greek bailout talks intensified fears that the country could be the first to exit the euro zone. Greece appeared to confirm it was heading for a default after a government official said the country would not pay a 1.6billon euro loan installment due to the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday. The European Central Bank froze funding to Greek banks, forcing Athens to shut banks for a week to keep them from collapsing. All three major US indexes fell more than 1 per cent. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 262.14 points, or 1.46 per cent, to 17,684.54, the S&P 500 lost 32.56 points, or 1.55 per cent, to 2,068.93 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 92.61 points, or 1.82 per cent, to 4,987.90. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 2,774 to 340, for a 8.16-to-1 ratio on the downside; on the Nasdaq, 2,324 issues fell and 464 advanced for a 5.01-to-1 ratio favoring decliners. The benchmark S&P 500 index was posting 2 new 52-week highs and 21 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite was recording 47 new highs and 100 new lows, according to Reuters.