This morning I wrote that Thursday's start to the EU Summit, a meeting of policymakers looking to solve the ongoing debt crisis, would be one of the main events for investors to watch this week. However, one thing I didn't expect was the news out of Europe to start hard and fast first thing Monday morning. But that's just what happened, with a stream of crisis-escalating headlines:
- Spain provided an official request for a bank bailout, though an official number wasn't provided.
- The island of Cyprus became the fifth company in the eurozone to request emergency aid, joining Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain.
- German Chancellor Angela Merkel reiterated her opposition to "Eurobonds," or a form of debt that would be jointly underwritten by all 17 eurozone member countries. The idea has been considered a potential solution to come out of this week's summit.
- The Greek finance minister announced his resignation following less than one week in office.
With those headlines as a backdrop, equity markets opened sharply lower and continued to lose ground throughout the day. Let's look at how the major U.S. indices finished on the day.
Index |
Gain / Loss |
Gain / Loss % |
Value |
---|---|---|---|
Dow Jones Industrial Average |
(138.1) | (1.09%) | 12,502.7 |
Nasdaq | (56.3) | (1.95%) | 2,836.2 |
S&P 500 | (21.3) | (1.60%) | 1,313.7 |
Source: Yahoo! Finance.
Turning to individual stocks, Bank of America
The McClendon Show goes on
Away from the Dow, shares of Chesapeake Energy
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