By Hao Li: Subscribe to Hao's RSS feed
May 18, 2010 7:21 PM EDT
U.S. stocks are down in the afternoon session as the euro plunged to a fresh 4-year low versus the U.S. dollar despite progress in the implementation of the euro zone bailout package.
The S&P 500 Index is down 14.05 points, or 1.24 percent, to trade at 1,122.89 at 3:19 p.m. EDT. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 121.15 points, or 1.14 percent, to trade at 10,504.68. The Nasdaq Composite is down 1.35 percent.
Technology shares declined the most, with Cisco (NASDAD:CSCO) dropping 2.05 percent and Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) losing 2.45 percent.
Earlier, news emerged that Greece received the first installment of its bailout package on Tuesday. This transfer of funds temporarily relieved the Greek government's upcoming funding needs this week.
However, optimism was short-lived as the euro plunged to a fresh 4-year low of EUR/USD 1.2160, dropping even lower than Monday's dramatic decline.
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Investors are still concerned that the 110 billion euro zone bailout does not address the high levels of sovereign debt in the euro zone, which is the fundamental problem of this crisis.
The market was also spooked by news that Germany will ban the naked short-selling of stocks, government bonds and credit-default swaps effective midnight, according to the Washington Post.
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