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 (INDEX: ^DJI) (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 (NYSE: BAC) declined the most of all Dow components, down 4.3% on the day. Tech player Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) also took it on the chin, down 4.1% as the broader information technology sector fell 2.3%, the worst among all S&P sectors.

The McClendon Show goes on
Away from the Dow, shares of Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) and its leader, Aubrey McClendon, were back in focus following a Reuters investigation uncovering a collusive plot to keep land acquisition prices low. According to the report, the company coordinated with Encana (NYSE: ECA) so that one wouldn't bid against the other during their efforts to acquire Michigan land back in 2010. The allegations of anticompetitive behavior drove Chesapeake shares down 8.5%, while U.S.-listed shares of Encana fell 4.1%.

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