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US, European stocks drop

12 May 2009 07:50 (UTC +04:00)

Baku- APA-Economics. The financial stocks that fuelled Wall Street last week ran dry on Monday, AP reported.
Bank shares dragged the market lower as traders worried that stocks, and particularly the hard-hit financials, had risen too quickly since the stock market’s rally began two months ago.
The Dow fell 155.88, or 1.8 percent, to 8,418.77. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 19.99, or 2.2 percent, to 909.24, while the Nasdaq composite index fell 7.76, or 0.5 percent, to 1,731.24.
Wall Street will continue to keep watch over banks but also will be looking for insights into the health of consumers as traders search for the next catalyst that could continue to pull the market from the 12-year lows of early March.
Last week, with the help of financials, the Dow gained 4.4 percent. The S&P 500 index rose 5.9 percent and the Nasdaq gained 1.2 percent.
Even with Monday’s slide, the S&P 500 index is up 34.4 percent from early March. however, it is still down 42 percent from its high in October 2007.
U.S. Bancorp fell $2.04, or 9.9 percent, to $18.50, while Capital One fell $4.24, or 13.5 percent, to $27.10. BB&T fell $1.99, or 7.6 percent, to $24.34.
Energy stocks fell as light, sweet crude slipped 13 cents to $58.50 per barrel. Chevron Texaco fell $2.38, or 3.4 percent, to $68, while Occidental Petroleum Corp. fell $2.44, or 3.7 percent, to $62.88.

Bond prices mostly rose. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 3.17 percent from 3.29 percent late Friday.
The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices fell.
Volume on the NYSE came to 1.5 billion shares.
Overseas, Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.6 percent, Germany’s DAX index lost 1 percent, and France’s CAC-40 slid 1.9 percent. Japan’s Nikkei stock average rose 0.2 percent.