LONDON/NEW YORK: Investors sold shares globally and stepped up bids for safe-haven bonds and the US dollar after J.P. Morgan & Co. reported deep losses on loans and its revenue fell short of expectations. Results from the second-largest US bank followed tepid US data and a season of lackluster earnings that has kept alive worries about economic recovery in the US and abroad.
New-York based J.P. Morgan reported a quarterly profit of 74 cents a share, a huge rise on the year earlier quarter. But its $25.2 billion revenue number was below estimates, tainting the sector that has just begun to release fourth quarter results.
Equity gains earlier in the session were capped despite upbeat earnings from chipmaker Intel Corp. By midday in New York world stocks had lost 0.9 percent, retreating further from 15-month highs hit earlier in the week.
European stock markets which opened firmer on the back of Intel results reversed gains to trade down 1.1 percent.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 107.77 points, or 1.01 percent, to 10,602.78. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slid 12.69 points, or 1.10 percent, to 1,135.77 and the Nasdaq Composite Index declined 27.61 points, or 1.19 percent, to 2,289.13.
The euro, under pressure from worries over the struggling Greek economy and the growing public debt burden in some euro zone economies, slid 0.87 percent to $1.4376, compared with around $1.4390 before the results and a previous session close of $1.4502. Against a basket of major trading partners’ currencies, the dollar rose 0.66 percent to 77.236. It fell 0.41 percent to 90.77 yen, however.
