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NEW YORK: US stocks fell for the second session running on Monday as a strengthening dollar impacted multinational companies and investors fretted about the embattled financial sector.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average skidded 104.22 points (1.05 percent) to finish at 9,867.96, below the psychologically important 10,000 barrier for the second consecutive session.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 12.62 points (0.59 percent) to 2,141.85 and the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index slid 12.65 points (1.17 percent) to 1,066.95.
The major indices erased strong opening gains in an abrupt reversal after about two hours of trading, and remained stuck in negative territory the rest of the session amid a dearth of economic releases on the calendar.
"A fast start didn't last long on Wall Street today. The major averages tumbled as a rebounding dollar stalled a rally in commodities," said Scott Marcouiller of Wells Fargo Advisors.
The dollar firmed against major currencies, gaining more than a cent against the euro.
"The strengthening dollar and financial industry developments rattled investors," said Sara Kline, an analyst at Moody's Economy.com.
The greenback's rise triggered a sharp pullback in oil prices and impacted dollar-sensitive sectors such as energy, mining and multinational companies whose exports benefit from a weak dollar.
Aluminium producer Alcoa plummeted 3.28 percent to 13.28 dollars, oil group Chevron fell 1.60 percent to 75.45 dollars and aerospace giant Boeing slid 3.21 percent to 48.29 dollars.
Bank of America was the biggest decliner on the blue-chip Dow, plunging 5.06 percent to 15.40 dollars, after the Wall Street Journal reported that its attempt to repay 45 billion dollars in federal bailout funds had snagged on a disagreement with regulators over how much additional capital the bank must raise.
The sector also was weighed down by an analyst downgrade of regional banks Fifth Third, down 7.83 percent to 9.53 dollars, and SunTrust, off 5.43 percent at 19.85 dollars.
The S&P banking index dropped 2.99 percent, JPMorgan Chase slumped 3.12 percent to 43.82 dollars and Citibank shed 4.26 percent to 4.27 dollars.
Telecommunications giant Verizon lost 0.73 percent to 28.64 dollars after the Dow component reported third-quarter profit only a fraction higher than expectations and revenue up 10.2 percent from a year ago.
Corning slipped 0.89 percent to 15.51 dollars after posting better-than-expected quarterly profit and saying it sees strong demand for its glass for liquid crystal display (LCD) screen televisions.
Marvell Technology proved a tech bright spot, up 2.81 percent to 14.99 dollars, after hiking its third-quarter revenue guidance.
The bond market dropped on Monday. The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond rose to 3.554 percent from 3.475 percent on Friday and that on the 30-year bond increased to 4.366 percent from 4.289 percent. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions. - AFP/de
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