nasdaq fell 14. in overseas trading this morning, in tokyo, the nikkei sank 130 points, in hong kong, the hang seng plummeted 394. stocks fell again wednesday after minutes of the federal reserve s june meeting disappointed investors hoping for another round of stimulus from the central bank. the minutes did show bond buying was discussed, most policy makers weren t ready to make a move. some are holding out hope, stressing the meeting was held prior to the most recent down data. market reaction was immediate. the euro hit a new two-year low against the dollar, gold closed nearly flat, the fed minutes combined with a big sale of ten-year treasury notes sent yields to near record lows. oil see-sawed. but oil later zoomed up on lower u.s. petroleum inventories and expectations for north sea oil production to fall. all that made oil stocks big winners, led by chevron and
were hoarding cash recently injected by the european central bank rather than lending it out, as hoped, a sign that those banks may be in worse shape than previously thought. on that news, the euro hit an 11-month low against the dollar and a 10-year low against japan s yen. euro worries hit bank stocks hard here with bank of america and regions financial leading lower as stocks lost.รง investors seeking safety drove bond prices higher. the u.s. ten-year treasury yield fell below 2%. oil fell almost $2, under $100 a barrel on saudi promises to offset any loss from a threatened iranian blockade. gold fell 2%, closing at the lowest level in more than five months. elsewhere, the national science foundation awarded lockheed martin a $2 billion contract to maintain the support infrastructure for antarctic research. and finally, yesterday, the new york times thought it sent
europe s debt agreement were lukewarm at best. and it sent stocking tumbling monday. both moodies and fitch warned markets the deal didn t go far enough and date ratings in europe may still be downgraded. spanish and italian debt once again soared. italy s 10-wreer note yield again approached the danger zone of 7%. the euro hit a ten-week low against the dollar. gold prices fell to their lowest levels in almost seven weeks. u.s. bond yields fell as investors looked for safety. wall street s losses were wide. most s&p 500 industry groups fell more than 1%. all ten closed negative. banks were among the worst off. morgan stanley, citigroup, bank of america and jm morgu jp m chase all fell. resource stocks also tumbled. oil fell and copper prices plummeted to a near two-week low.
meanwhile, euro zone s palestiniansters meeting in brussels to talk about keeping greece s debt problems from spreading to italy and spain, your third and fourth largest economies. european banks trading in the u.s. took a beating as the euro hit a six-week low against the dollar. of course, u.s. banks weren t looking any better in the wake ever friday s dismal jobs reports and ahead of earnings this week, but the red didn t stop there. oil prices tumbling on signs ever slowing demand in china dragging energy stocks low are across the board. finally, alcoa sharply lower ahead of warnings delivered after the closing bell, but helped deliver earnings and revenue pretty much in line with expectation. that s it from cnbc first in business worldwide. now back to hardball with chris matthews.
amount of business overseas such as ibm, hewlett-packard, a lot of business is done overseas, and then, of course, you have to worry about the dollar. the euro hit a one-year low versus the dollar today, and what that does to our exports is make them way more expensive. if they re less attractive, that could lead to a slower economic recovery which is exactly what we don t want to see, jon, so the concerns over, again, the credit contagion kind of bubbling up to the surface, if you will, once again on wall street. jon: it all is interrelated. jenna, thank you. jane: we re working to get you more details on the time square bombing and the report of several related arrests in pakistan. what exactly did this plot involved? also, a navy seal accused of roughing up a terrorist in iraq. a jury has just been seated in his court-martial, we ll update you. and this woman was set to move to florida. instead, this young mother is missing. harris is working this mystery from the breaking news desk