Greek disarray shatters Wall Street calm

Philippine Times Friday 10th February, 2012

U.S. stocks fell sharply Friday with problems surfacing in Greece over austerity measures planned by the government.

A national strike by workers to protest the government's proposed reforms threatens to undermine the deal reached with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund over a $173 billion bailout package.

"There's an increase in the level of agita in the markets, because the Greek deal isn't done," Guy LeBas, chief fixed income strategist at Janney Capital Markets told CNN Money. "The tone of the market has turned fairly negative."

Global markets have been plagued by the on-again, off-again nature of the negotiations over Greece's debt dilemma with the debt-ridden country facing a default situation as early as next month if a deal is not finalised.

At the close of trading Friday the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 89.23 points or 0.69% at 12,801.23.

The Nasdaq Composite was down 23.35 points or 0.80% at 2,903.88.

The Standard and Poor's 500 was off 9.31 points or 0.69% at 1,342.64.

The euro fell against the U.S. dollar taking other currencies with it. Around the New York close Friday the euro was quoted at 1.3171.

The British pound fell to 1.5739. The Swiss franc eased to 0.9174.

The Australian dollar fell one-and-a-half cents to 1.0648.

The New Zealand dollar was softer at 0.8268. The Canadian dollar fell to 1.0025.

The Japanese yen was unchanged at 77.62.