Wall Street opened lower on Monday as investors returned to the market after a holiday-shortened trading week, focused on the meeting of euro zone finance ministers on Greece and negotiations over the United States budget.
The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index fell 0.5 percent in morning trading, and the Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.6 percent. The Nasdaq composite index was off 0.1 percent.
Euro zone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund were to release the second bailout package for Greece on Monday, but they first needed to agree if some of the official loans to Athens might eventually be forgiven to cut Greek debt.
In Washington, lawmakers made little progress in the past 10 days toward a compromise to avoid the harsh tax increases and government spending cuts scheduled to start taking effect on Jan. 1, a senior Democratic senator said Sunday.
On Friday, the Dow and S.&P. 500 both closed above key technical levels for the first time since Nov. 6. The Dow ended above 13,000 points, while the S.&P. broke above 1,400. For the week, the Dow rose 3.3 percent, while the Nasdaq jumped 4 percent. The Nasdaq had ended lower for the previous six weeks in a row.
The sovereign wealth fund Qatar Holding has cashed in its remaining warrants in Barclays, a move that should yield a $280 million profit and still leaves the sovereign wealth fund as the bank’s top shareholder following a controversial fund-raising in 2008. Barclays fell 5.2 percent in New York.
Stocks Decline in the Early Going
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Stocks Decline in the Early Going
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Stocks Decline in the Early Going
