Wall Street tumbled on Monday as the U.S. dollar rose against most major currencies and the manufacturing sector in New York region contracted at a faster pace.
The U.S. dollar rose against most major currencies on Monday following comments from Russia's finance minister. Alexei Kudrin, the Russian minister, said at a weekend meeting of G-8 finance ministers in Italy that the dollar's status as the world's main reserve currency wasn't likely to change soon.
Commodity stocks were under pressure as the dollar perked up. And profit taking also weighed on commodity stocks. Exxon Mobil and Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. led energy and basic material shares lower.
The market has posted a huge rally after touching a 12-year low on March 9 on signs the economy was strengthening, but traded flat last week on concern that higher interest rates will slow the economic recovery.
The economic data released on Monday showed that manufacturing in the New York region contracted at a faster pace in June. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York said its general economic index fell to minus 9.4 from minus 4.6 in May. Economists had expected the index would hold unchanged.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 187.13 points, or 2.13 percent, to 8,612.13. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was down 22.49 points, or 2.38 percent, to 923.72. The Nasdaq composite index dropped 42.42 points, or 2.28 percent, to 1,816.38.
(Xinhua News Agency June 16, 2009)
