- NEW YORK: World stocks fell on Monday on skepticism that governments can reverse a slowdown in global growth, while the yen resumed its rally after Japan's action to expand loans to banks disappointed investors who had wanted more aggressive measures to curb the currency's rise.
At midday in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 65.13 points, or 0.64 percent, to 10,085.52. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index slipped 6.99 points, or 0.66 percent, to 1,057.60 and the Nasdaq Composite Index declined 15.55 points, or 0.72 percent, to 2,138.08.
MSCI's all-country world stock index and the Thomson Reuters global stock index both fell about 0.1 percent. MSCI's emerging market sub-index gained 0.3 percent.
In Europe, the FTSEurofirst 300 ended slightly lower, as the concerns about the global economic recovery outweighed support from the merger and acquisition news.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 closed down 0.1 percent at 1,025.48 points.
The yen hit the day's high against the dollar and the euro. The dollar fell 0.6 percent against the yen at 84.67 yen, close to a session low of 84.53 yen.
The dollar rose 0.15 percent against a basket of currencies. The euro fell 0.6 percent to $1.2689.
US Treasury debt prices rose as traders clawed back some of Friday's sharp losses, when Fed Chairman Bernanke signaled the US central bank was not on the verge of a new round of bond buying.
Yields on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes declined 0.11 percentage point to 2.54 percent.
In commodities, US light sweet crude oil fell 63 cents, or 0.84 percent, to $74.54 per barrel. Gold rose 35 cents, or 0.03 percent, to $1236.50.