North American stocks took a turn for the worse toward the close of trading on Tuesday, with concerns about the Greek debt crisis sending investors recoiling from risky investments.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed at 10,991.99, down 213.04 points, or 1.9 per cent. The broader S&P 500 closed at 1183.71, down 28.34 points, or 2.3 per cent - marking its biggest one-day setback in more than two months. In Canada, the S&P/TSX composite index closed at 12,146.74, down 134.23 points, or 1.1 per cent.
The declines came amid generally upbeat earnings and economic news. Year-over-year home prices in February rose for the first time in three years, while the Conference Board's consumer confidence index rose considerably higher than expectations.
Turning to earnings, Ford Motor Co. announced that it earned $2.1-billion (U.S.) in the first quarter, also beating expectations.
Yet, these positive developments were no match for Standard & Poor's downgrade of Greek government debt to junk status, which has raised concerns about potential default and what it would mean for debt holders and other European nations.
There were few safe havens during the ensuing stock market rout. At the S&P 500, 96 per cent of the stocks in the index ended the day lower. In particular, Ford fell 6.2 per cent, Caterpillar Inc. fell 4.4 per cent and JPMorgan Chase & Co. fell 3.4 per cent
Elsewhere, crude oil fell to $82.44 a barrel, down nearly $2. The Reuters/Jefferies CRB index of 19 commodities fell 1.9 per cent, its biggest one-day slump in more than two months.
The two biggest winners: The U.S. dollar and gold. The U.S. dollar index rose 1 per cent, as investors unwound bets and stored their savings in the greenback. The Canadian dollar fell 1.3 cents against the U.S. dollar, to 98.5 cents.
Meanwhile, gold rose to its highest level since December.
Curiously, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. was also a winner. Despite the fact that its executives were grilled in a Senate hearing related to potential conflicts of interest, the shares rose 0.7 per cent.