The Dow posted its worst decline of 2012 Tuesday, marking a third day of losses.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 203 points, or 1.57%, to 12,758. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was off by 21 points, or 1.54%, to 1343, and the Nasdaq slipped 40 points, or 1.36%, to 2910.
As investors sought the safety of cash, gold futures sank below $1,700 for the first time in six weeks.
Within the S&P 500, the financial, material, industrial and energy sectors shed more than 2% of their value. Among the day’s biggest gainers, Encore Bancshares (EBTX). Its shares rose 35% after Cadence Bancorp said it would acquire Encore for $250 million in cash.
Driving the decline: weak signals for economic growth across the globe, combined with fear about the looming debt swap between Greece and private creditors that markets hope will stave off a Greek default.
Oil prices declined, as they have in two of the last three sessions, though the front-month futures contract price, now at $104.70, is up nearly 6% so far this year. The threat of economic weakness pushed crude prices lower, as did Tuesday’s dollar strength. Priced in dollars, oil has an inverse relationship with the greenback.
President Barack Obama, in his first news conference since November, asked Attorney General Eric Holder to resurrect a year-old tax force that examined oil-price speculation, acknowledging he doesn’t want to enter a re-election campaign with rising gasoline prices.
