NEW YORK, July 11 (AFP): US stocks dropped in early trade Thursday following a big retreat in European exchanges sparked by problems at Portugal's largest bank.
About 80 minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 110.07 points (0.65 per cent) at 16,875.54.
The broad-based S&P 500 slumped 11.60 (0.60 per cent) to 1,961.02, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index slid 35.45 (0.80 per cent) to 4,383.59.
Equity markets in Britain, France and Germany all sank as Portugal's market regulator halted trading in Banco Espirito Santo amid allegations the bank's parent company covered up a 1.3 billion euro ($1.8 billion) hole in its accounts.
That renewed concern that Portugal's banks remain vulnerable after the country emerged from a three-year international bailout in May.
US traders also remained cautious after the Dow and S&P 500 surged to records last week. Analysts worry that a lackluster earnings season could set deal US stocks a significant setback in the coming weeks.
Financial stocks fell, including Bank of America (-1.1 per cent), Citigroup (-0.8 per cent) and Wells Fargo (-0.6 per cent). Tech equities also declined, including Facebook (-0.89 per cent), Google (-0.6 per cent) and Twitter (-0.8 per cent).
IBM dropped 1.0 per cent as it said it would spend $3 billion to develop computer chip technology to better meet demands of "Big Data" and computing pushed to the Internet "cloud".
US stocks follow European markets sharply lower
FE Team | Published: July 12, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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