(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors)
Wall Street was whacked overnight after a collapse in Greek bailout talks raised fears that the country could be the first to exit the euro zone.
By the close the Dow Jones had plummeted 350 points (or 2%) to 17596. The S&P 500 headed south 2.1% while the NASDAQ sank 2.4% to 4958.
The crisis worsened after a Greek government official said the country would not pay a 1.6 billion euro loan installment due to the International Monetary Fund tomorrow.
The European Central Bank froze funding to Greek banks forcing Athens to shut banks for a week to keep them from collapsing.
Negotiations between Greece and its creditors essentially collapsed over the weekend after Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras unexpectedly called for a referendum on whether to accept reform measures demanded by the country’s lenders. The country’s parliament approved the vote which will be held July 5.
U.S. economic data
The pending home sales index issued by the National Association of Realtors rose to a nine-year high.
Wall Street round-up
() dropped 1.1 percent to $98.87. The drug maker is buying biotech firm Spinifex Pharmaceuticals which specializes in pain management for $200 million with the possibility of further payments in the future. Spinifex is currently owned by venture capital firms in the U.S. and Australia.
ADRs of National Bank of Greece (NYSE:NBG) slumped 23 percent to $0.97. These and other Greece-related stocks are under pressure this morning following the failure of Greek debt talks over the weekend.
General Electric (NYSE:GE) fell 1.7 percent at $26.64 after it announced it will sell its U.S. Mexico Australia and New Zealand fleet businesses for $6.9 billion with a separate smaller deal in the works to unload its business in Europe.
(NYSE:ALU) gave up 3.9 percent to $3.66. Hedge fund Elliott Management took a 1.3 percent stake in the telecom equipment maker leading to speculation that it will push for improved terms for its deal to be bought by Nokia.
Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) retreated 3 percent to $34.21. Vice President of Corporate Development and Strategy Rishi Garg resigned to pursue other interests according to Re/code. He joined Twitter in May 2014.
eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) sank 2.6 percent to $59.45. The world's largest Internet auctioneer approved the previously announced separation of the company's PayPal operation into an independent publicly traded company.
JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) declined 2.5 percent to $67.22. Oppenheimer downgraded the bank to "perform" from "outperform" on the idea that valuations may be outrunning fundamentals given the lack of earnings drivers.
Macy's (NYSE:M) retreated 3.9 percent to $67.18. The second-largest U.S. department-store was downgraded to "sell" from "buy" at Deutsche Bank reflecting the firm's "low confidence" that Macy's can break out of a "same-store sales rut."
Gannett (NYSE:GCI) dropped 16.5 percent to $31.05. The company splits in two effective today. The existing parent company is renamed Tegna and will own 46 broadcast stations as well as the Cars.com and Careerbuilder.com websites.
Proactive Investors Australia is the market leader in producing news articles and research reports on ASX emerging companies with distribution in Australia UK North America and Hong Kong / China.
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.