Stock Market Watch

Stocks Plunge in Early Trading as Italian Debt Worries Continue to Mount

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Stocks have plunged in early trading as worries about the debt crisis in Italy continue to weigh down sentiment. The yield on 10-year Italian debt has continued to rise as investors worry about Italy’s ability to deal with its debt problems.

On Tuesday, Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi offered to resign after the implementation of austerity measures to bring down the country’s debt levels, which stand at almost 120% to the GDP. Berlusconi’s offer gave temporary relief to the markets, with stocks in the U.S. rising on Tuesday. Italian bond yields have continued to soar despite Berlusconi’s offer to step down as market participants believe that Italy’s debt level is unsustainable.


Italy, which is the third-largest economy in the euro zone and the seventh-largest in the world, has been deemed to big to fail. As investors remain worried about the situation Italy, they are cutting risk exposure, which has sparked a huge sell-off in early trading today.

At last check, the Dow Jones was trading 2.19% lower at 11,903.47, the S&P 500 was trading 2.39% lower at 1,245.40, and the Nasdaq was trading 2.58% lower at 2,657.25.

All sectors in the S&P 500 have fallen sharply at the start of trading today. Energy stocks are leading the losses in the S&P 500 in early trading today. At last check, Energy stocks were trading 3.36% lower. Basic Materials stocks have also fallen sharply at the start of trading today, down 3.05% currently. Financials are currently trading 3.24% lower. Industrials have fallen 2.76%.

Among the major losers in early trading today are Ralph Lauren Corp. (NYSE: RL), which is currently trading 5% lower at $151.10, Rovi Corporation (NASDAQ: ROVI), which is currently trading 35.81% lower at $29.54, and STEC Inc. (NASDAQ: STEC), which is currently trading 16.84% lower at $9.73.

 

edliston
Post Written By: Ed Liston

Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.


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Ed Liston

Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing.

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