Wall St slumps 1 percent as dollar strengthens

finance.yahoo.com

By Ryan Vlastelica

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell 1 percent on Tuesday, with major indexes dropping in a broad decline and turning negative for the year amid continued strength in the U.S. dollar.

Concerns over Greece's debt talks added to the day's weakness, which took the S&P 500 below its 50-day moving average, a sign of weak near-term momentum. 

The U.S. Dollar index (.DXY) rose 0.9 percent and was on track for its fourth rise of the past five sessions, up 3.3 percent over that period. The euro fell 1.4 percent against the dollar.

"There's some concern about what impact this will have on corporate earnings going forward, especially for the big multi-national companies," said Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at the ConvergEx Group in New York.

Euro zone ministers agreed that technical talks between finance experts from Athens and its international creditors would start on Wednesday, with the aim of unlocking further funding. However, the ministers warned Greece that it had "no time to lose."

Greece's debt issues have been on the back burner of late for U.S. investors. 

While the United States has little direct exposure to the country, there are concerns that extended uncertainty could spread throughout the euro zone.

"There's a lot of rhetoric out there, some of which feels like name-calling, all of which makes the situation read as worse than it used to be," Colas said.

In China, the pace of inflation unexpectedly picked up in February while producer prices continued to slide, underscoring the intense pressure on profit margins at Chinese companies and adding urgency to policymakers' efforts to support growth.

The day's losses were broad, with all 10 primary S&P 500 sectors lower. Despite that, major indexes were roughly 3 percent away from record levels.

Urban Outfitters Inc (URBN.O) late Monday reported earnings that beat expectations, lifted by an increase in same-store sales. Shares rose 11 percent to $43.68 and were by far the biggest gainer on the S&P 500.

On the downside, Barnes & Noble (BKS.N) fell 7.9 percent to $22.90 after the company reported a drop in third-quarter sales.

Crude oil (CLc1) fell 2.2 percent in its third daily decline in the past four sessions. ConocoPhillips (COP.N) fell 1.2 percent to $61.23 while Occidental Petroleum (OXY.N) was off 1.3 percent to $73.79.

At 12:07 p.m., the Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) fell 267.28 points, or 1.49 percent, to 17,728.44, the S&P 500 (.SPX) lost 29.16 points, or 1.4 percent, to 2,050.27 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) dropped 75.35 points, or 1.52 percent, to 4,867.09.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 2,240 to 759, for a 2.95-to-1 ratio; on the Nasdaq, 2,101 issues fell and 528 advanced for a 3.98-to-1 ratio.

The S&P 500 was posting 4 new 52-week highs and 15 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite was recording 26 new highs and 71 new lows.

(Editing by W Simon and Nick Zieminski)