US stocks fall over concerns about European debt crisis

NEW YORK - US stocks fell Monday over concerns that the Irish bailout wouldn’t stem the European debt crisis, tensions simmering on the Korean Peninsula and the release of thousands of secret US diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks.

“There seems to be plenty to bother the market,” E. William Stone, chief investment strategist at PNC Wealth Management in Philadelphia, told Bloomberg news. “There’s concern about the European financial crisis affecting healthier economies and the viability of the euro. This issue seems to be far from over.”

European officials’ hopes of quelling financial market concerns about the economic threat from the region’s debt crisis with the Irish bailout were dashed Monday, with sharp falls in bourses and the euro.

This all came after frantic last-minute weekend negotiations to present details of the 85-billion-euro ($113-billion) package designed to help Ireland shore up investor confidence.

“The situation in Korea is hot and fluid,” economist Robert Brusca of FAO Economics said in a research note, according to CNN Money. “The WikiLeaks data is very damaging to the US and to many of its important allies.”

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 39.51 points, or 0.36 percent, to 11,052.49. The broader Standard and Poor’s 500 index fell 1.64 points, or 0.14 percent, to 1,187.76. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index was down 9.34 points, or 0.37 percent, to 2,525.22.

The US currency rose against the euro to 76.24 euro cents from 75.49 euro cents Friday. The dollar gained against the Japanese currency to 84.27 yen from 84.06 yen.