A political stalemate in Greece rattled financial markets worldwide on Monday, sending U.S. stocks lower.
The price of oil and Treasury yields hit their lowest levels of the year. The euro sank to a three-month low against the dollar.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 104 points to 12,716, a loss of 0.8 percent. The Dow has now lost more than half of its gains for the year in two weeks as worries resurface about Europe and the strength of the U.S. economy.
Political parties in Athens resumed power-sharing talks Monday as negotiations to create a government drag into a second week. The uncertainty has raised concerns that Greece could miss a debt payment and drop out of the euro currency. The worry is that if Greece leaves the currency union, bond traders may turn on other troubled countries in Europe and demand steeper borrowing rates on the government bond market.
In other trading, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index dropped 12 points to 1,341. The Nasdaq composite fell 24 points to 2,909.
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