Global shares fall on euro zone worries
Global stocks tumbled on Wednesday as surging bond yields in Spain and Italy ratcheted up tensions in financial markets about Europe's ability to solve its growing debt crisis.
Angst over Europe drove investors away from risky assets and into safe havens. US Treasury benchmark yields fell to their lowest in at least 60 years, prices for crude fell more than 3 percent and the euro dropped below $1.24 to a 23-month low.
The Dow Jones industrial average lost 160.83 points, or 1.28 percent, to 12,419.86. The S&P 500 Index dropped 19.10 points, or 1.43 percent, to 1,313.32. The Nasdaq Composite fell 33.63 points, or 1.17 percent, to 2,837.36.
European shares fell sharply and looked poised for further jitters amid signs Spain's economic and banking crisis was deepening and on renewed concerns Greece may fall out of the euro zone.
Spain's Ibex 35 index fell 2.6 percent to fresh 9-year low as investors worried that soaring borrowing costs may force the country, engaged in an expensive recapitalisation of its banking sector, to seek an international bailout.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 closed 1.5 percent lower at 975.74 points, having traded 108 percent of its 90-day volume average.
Earlier in Asia, Nikkei average ended a four-session winning run, weighed by exporters as the yen firmed on mounting concerns over Spain's banking system, although Renesas Electronics Corp rebounded after a recent slide.
Gains in Softbank Corp, up 2.7 percent after Deutsche Bank upgrade, and scandal-hit Olympus Corp climbed 4 percent, helping to limit the losses on the Nikkei , which closed 0.3 percent lower at 8,633.19. The broader Topix index fell 0.5 percent to 723.62.
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