The stock markets in the United States dropped due to investors’ concern regarding the recent developments in the credit markets.
Argentina’s discussions with bondholders collapse, a signal that it is on the brink of another default in 13 years. Argentina missed its deadline to pay $539 in interest after its failure to reach an agreement with creditors from its previous default in 2001.
A U.S. judge ruled that Argentina cannot make the payment unless the creditors—a group of hedge funds led by Elliott Management receive their claim of $1.5 billion.
On the other hand, the central bank of Portugal ordered Banco Espirito Santo (ELI:BES) to raise more capital after reporting a huge loss of $4.8 billion for the second-quarter. The Portuguese bank’s executives who are in-charge of audit, compliance, and risk management were suspended. The stock price of Banco Espirito Santo declined more than 42% to €0.20 per share today.
Commenting on the situation of the credit markets, Lawrence Creatura, a fund manager at Federated Investors Inc. told Bloomberg, “When events like these happen, investors try to figure out whether this is an isolated occurrence or the first domino in a chain. There is always a bit of uncertainty as to which we have on our hands.”
On the other hand, David Chalupnik, head of equities at Nuveen Asset Management commented, “Maybe the market is getting a little bit tired here. It’s more concern around Europe. We’ve had an extremely easy monetary environment for the past six years. When that changes, it’s going to cause a lot of anxieties.”
U.S. Markets
- Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA)- 16,563.30 (-1.88%)
- S&P 500- 1,930.67 (-2.00%)
- NASDAQ- 4,369.77 (-2.09%)
- Russell 2000- 1,120.07 (-2.31%)
European Markets
- EURO STOXX 50 Price EUR- 3,115.51 (-1.70%)
- FTSE 100 Index- 6,730.11 (-0.64%)
- Deutsche Borse AG German Stock Index DAX- 9,407.48 (-1.94%)
Asia-Pacific Markets
- Nikkei 225- 15,620.77 (-0.16%)
- Hong Kong Hang Seng Index- 24,756.85 (+0.10%)
- Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 Index- 2,350.25 (+1.22%)
Stocks in Focus
The stock price of Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) tanked more than 3% to $99.75 per share after the company reported that its daily oil and natural gas production dropped 5.7% to the equivalent of 3.84 million barrels of crude.
The shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) declined more than 5% to $69.20 per share after the parent company of Pizza Hut and KFC restaurants stated that the food safety scandal in China hurt its sales over the past ten days. The company said the scandal “shaken consumer confidence” and “impacted brand usage.” Yum! Brands cut its relationship with meat supplier OSI Group LLC.
Sprint Corporation (NYSE:S) fell more than 6% to $7.27 per share on report that Iliad SA (EPA:ILD) (OTCMKTS:ILIAY), a French telecommunications holding company submitted a counter bid to acquire T-Mobile US Inc (NYSE:TMUS) to enter the largest wireless market worldwide.
