| GEO Business | | Stocks, euro slide on Greek fears, jobs data | Updated at: 2011 PST, Thursday, April 08, 2010
NEW YORK/LONDON: US stocks slid and the euro fell to near its lowest level against the dollar this year on Thursday on growing doubts about Greece's ability to resolve its fiscal problems.
In New York the euro was down 0.07 percent at $1.3331 after hitting a low around $1.3282, according to Reuters data. This was near its 2010 trough of $1.3267 set in March on electronic trading platform EBS, which was also its lowest since May last year.
World markets were still under selling pressure even after European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet said Greece was not in danger of defaulting. "I would say that taking all the information I have, a default is not an issue for Greece," Trichet said. "We are responsible for 330 million people and for 100 percent of the GDP of the euro area. Greece represents 2.5 percent of the GDP of the euro area, but it is obviously an important issue."
Earlier, the ECB left euro zone interest rates at a record low of 1 percent.
The mood in the euro zone spilled over into stocks worldwide.
MSCI's all-country world index of global equities was off 0.66 percent, a decline extended in emerging market shares, down 0.84 percent.
At 10:15 a.m. EST (1415 GMT), the Dow Jones industrial average was down 34.46 points, or 0.32 percent, at 10,863.06, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 5.11 points, or 0.43 percent, at 1,177.34. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 13.33 points, or 0.55 percent, at 2,417.83.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index was down 1.1 percent, after the Nikkei 225 Index had fallen the same amount.
"It is now up to the Greek government to go publicly to the EU and IMF and ask for the cash and the support; the matter cannot be long delayed," Chris Pryce, Fitch Ratings' senior analyst for Greece, told Reuters in an interview.
RISK AVERSION RISES
US Treasury debt prices rose as pressure on equities continued globally.
The benchmark 10-year US Treasury note was up 4/32, with the yield at 3.85 percent, while the 2-year US Treasury note was up 1/32, with the yield at 1.04 percent. The 30-year US.
Treasury bond was up 3/32, with the yield at 4.73 percent.
Treasuries got a boost on weak jobless claims data. The number of US workers filing new claims for unemployment insurance rose unexpectedly last week, reflecting seasonal volatility, according to a government report on Thursday.
The dollar was up against a basket of major trading-partner currencies, with the US Dollar Index up 0.2 percent at 81.602 from a previous session close of 81.443.
The euro was down 0.07 percent at $1.3331 from a previous session close of $1.3340. Against the yen, the dollar was down 0.32 percent at 93.04 yen from a previous session close of 93.34.
US light sweet crude oil fell 86 cents, or 1 percent, to $85.02 per barrel, while spot gold rose $1.50, or 0.13 percent, to $1149.00. The Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index was down 0.92 percent, at 275.05. |  |
|
