Sending Shares Lower

(Reuters) - World stocks skidded and the euro fell to a 21-month low on Wednesday on worries about Greece's possible exit from the euro zone, which threatened to deepen the region's debt crisis and hurt an already fragile global recovery. Nervous investors piled into low-risk U.S. and German government debt, sending their yields lower. The dollar also was favored as a safe haven by investors. Each euro zone country will have to prepare a contingency plan for the possibility of Greece's leaving the bloc, three euro zone sources told Reuters, citing an agreement reached by officials. A scramble for low-risk investments enabled Germany to pay no interest on 5 billion euros in new two-year debt amid the absence of new measures to tackle the region's debt crisis from a European leaders' ...

Gold fell for a fourth straight day to its lowest since late December on Wednesday, sucked into a broad-based sell-off that dented global markets on the back of alarm over political turmoil in Greece. Gold dropped along with other more industrial commodities such as copper and crude oil, under pressure from the rise of the dollar, which put silver on track for its longest stretch of consecutive daily losses in nearly four years. Fears of a Greek exit from the euro zone worsening the debt crisis facing other European nations gripped financial markets on Wednesday, sending shares and other riskier assets lower as investors shifted funds into safe havens like the U.S. dollar. The euro touched four-month lows against the dollar, Spanish and Italian bond yields soared, while European ...

Fears of a Greek exit from the euro zone worsening the debt crisis facing other European nations gripped financial markets on Wednesday, sending shares and other riskier assets lower as investors shifted funds into safe havens like the U.S. dollar. The euro touched a fresh four-month low of $1.2883, Spanish and Italian bond yields rose, while the FTSE Eurofirst .FTEU3 index of top European shares hit its lowest level for the year at 983.95 points, down over 1 percent. The probability of Greece leaving the 17-member currency bloc increased markedly after political leaders in Athens failed to form a government on Tuesday, forcing another round of elections. Opinion polls show this is likely to be won by leftist parties opposed to the country's bailout deal. (nL5E8GG0S1). In response, ...

Consumer shares led a modest rebound on Wall Street on Tuesday, after the S&P 500 fell for four of the past five sessions, but gains were capped as investors kept an eye on the political impasse in Greece. Quarterly results helped boost the S&P consumer discretionary sector index, with TJX (TJX.N) up 7.4 percent at $42.65 and Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS.N) up 9.2 percent at $51.59. The S&P retail sector index .RLX rose 1.5 percent. U.S. retail sales rose 0.1 percent in April, slightly below expectations. However, details in the Commerce Department's report indicating underlying strength in demand and a rebound in manufacturing activity in New York State calmed concerns that the economy was stalling. "Earnings have been pretty good and supporting the market to a certain degree," said John ...

Sunrise Market Commentary - Fixed Income: Global core bonds profit from euro debt crisis - Concerns about Greece and Spain underpinned the ongoing rally of global core bonds. The German 10-year yield fell below 1.50%. Intra-EMU yield spreads versus Germany widened substantially. Today, the eco calendar is enticing. If no euro debt crisis news acts as a circuit breaker, the eco data may for once drive the price action. - Currencies: Speculation on Grexit continues to hammer the euro. - At the start of the new trading week, the Greek crisis remained the key factor for currency trading. With no visibility on the outcome of the EMU crisis, the easiest way for the euro is south. EUR/USD set a new correction low. EUR/GBP dropped below the 0.8000. This morning, strong German ...

U.S. Stocks slumped at the open on Monday, sending the Standard & Poor`s 500 Index below key 1,350, with basic materials and energy shares falling the most this morning as concerns grew Greece will lose its euro-membership while the country`s political leaders fail to forge a collation government. The Political uncertainty is mounting with four parties failing to find a common ground in order to avoid having to call an inevitable new election in June. Should Greece face new elections next month, markets will start to weigh a referendum on Greece staying in the euro. Leaders of Greece`s main political parties stood rigid in their positions on the country`s debt agreement with European Union to International Monetary fund, making a coalition government barely impossible as European finance ...

(Reuters) - Gold slipped more than half a percent on Friday, tracking equities lower, as investors failed to shake off worries about Europe's debt crisis and its impact on global economic growth. Gold, though traditionally seen as a safe haven, bore the brunt of the sell-offs across risk assets such as equities, industrial metals and oil this week, forcing investors and speculators to sell bullion to cover losses in other markets. Gold eased $7.87 to $1,585.86 an ounce by 01:08 a.m. EDT (0508 GMT) after shares in Asia were hit by JPMorgan's (JPM.N) $2 billion loss from a failed hedging strategy and by political turmoil in the euro zone. It is poised to fall by more than 3 percent this week, its deepest drop since early March. "We are still uncertain about what's happening out of the ...

(Reuters) - Shares, precious metals and oil fell and the euro remained pressured on Wednesday as Greece struggled to form a government after an election that saw incumbent parties punished, heightening the risk that a hard-won bailout deal could be scrapped. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS shed 1.4 percent to its lowest in more than three months, with energy .MIAPJEN00PUS, materials .MIAPJMT00PUS and growth sensitive industrials .MIAPJIN00PUS leading the declines. Resources-heavy Australian shares .AXJO plunged 1 percent to a three-week low as oil, precious metals and copper slid. European shares will likely edge up after a mauling on Tuesday, with financial spreadbetters predicting that major European markets .FTSE .FCHI .GDAXI would open 0.6 ...

Investors sold European shares and the euro on Tuesday, unnerved by the political stalemate in Greece and the threat of a Franco-German split over policies to tackle the region's debt crisis. The uncertainty in Europe added to worries about global growth after weak American jobs data, sending industrial commodities like oil and copper lower. U.S. shares were also expected to open down on Wall Street. .N While markets were in a risk averse mood, activity was less volatile than on Monday when European shares initially fell sharply in reaction to the weekend's election results before firming after Spain said it was prepared to use public funds to help its troubled banks. Spain is the euro zone's fourth largest economy and investors have focused on its troubles because it would be expensive ...