http://preview.bloomberg.com/news/2010-05-28/stocks-extend-rebound-from-nine-month-low-u-s-futures-advance-oil-gains.htmlU.S. stocks slid, capping the worst May for the Dow Jones Industrial Average since 1940, while the euro slumped and Treasuries rose as a downgrade of Spain’s debt rating and escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula triggered a flight from riskier assets.The Dow tumbled 122.36 points, or 1.2 percent, to 10,136.63 at 4 p.m. in New York and lost 7.9 percent this month. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index sank 1.2 percent to 1,089.41, led by financial shares on the Spanish downgrade and energy companies after U.S. President Barack Obama extended a moratorium on new deep-water drilling. Oil erased gains after rallying as much as 1.6 percent to more than $75 a barrel. Ten-year Treasury yields decreased 7 basis points to 3.3 percent. The euro slipped 0.7 percent to $1.2273.
Equities and commodities extended losses after Fitch Ratings stripped Spain of the AAA rating it’s held since 2003, saying the nation’s economic growth will slow as it attempts to cut its debts. Earlier losses followed disappointing U.S. economic data and a North Korean general’s warning of “all-out war” if any accidental clashes with South Korea break out.
“Spain’s downgrade just adds to more uncertainty,” said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist for Newark, New Jersey- based Prudential Financial Inc., which oversees about $667 billion. “There are too many geopolitical events. We have a three-day weekend in the U.S., and traders will definitely want to lighten their books.”
‘All-Out War’
Losses in U.S. stocks widened earlier after North Korean Major General Pak Rim Su disputed the results of the international investigation that found his nation sank a South Korean warship. “Any accidental clash that may break out in the waters of the West Sea of Korea or in areas along the Demilitarized Zone will lead to all-out war,” he said, according to North Korea’s official news organization.
About 9.2 billion shares changed hands on all U.S. exchanges, 4 percent below the average for the year as trading slowed before the Memorial Day holiday.
“With volumes being as they are today ahead of the holiday weekend, there is not much in the way of conviction among traders,” said Mark Turner, head of U.S. sales trading at Instinet LLC, which handles about 4 percent of U.S. equity trading volume. “So any headline has the potential to move the market. And the situation in North Korea has especially been in our crosshairs.”
China’s Assurance
The retreat in the S&P 500 today came after the benchmark index rallied 3.3 percent yesterday as China assured investors it was committed to maintaining European investments even as a sovereign debt crisis rattles confidence in the region.
Benchmark indexes pared declines late in the day after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. strategist David Kostin raised his estimates for S&P 500 earnings to $78 a share for this year and $93 a share for 2011, up from $76 and $90, to reflect “strong” first quarter earnings and better-than-estimated profit margins.
The S&P 500 trimmed its advance for the week to 0.2 percent, while the MSCI World Index of shares in 24 developed nations rose 0.6 percent over the past five days. The U.S. gauge sank 8.2 percent in May and the global gauge lost 9.9 percent, the worst month since February 2009 for both and the biggest slide in May for the S&P 500 since 1962.
