US stocks open lower amid Greek financial woes

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks sank today amid fresh concerns that a bailout package for Greece wouldn't take shape in time for the country to avoid defaulting on its debts. The plunge comes in the wake of Wall Street's best week in months.

European finance ministers said Friday they would delay authorizing a new installment of emergency funds for Greece until October. Investors fear that the country will fail to convince its lenders that it can pay its debts.

The Greek cabinet will meet to devise new austerity measures, but the country risks not qualifying for an $11 billion installment of the bailout package it received last year, as well as a second bailout worth $149 billion.

If Greece were to default on its debt, other debt-laden European countries would likely be judged less credit-worthy and have difficulty obtaining loans. A crisis such as that could ripple through the global banking system and put the brakes on a U.S. economic recovery.

Twenty minutes after the market opened, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 225 points, or 2 percent, to 11,284. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 25, or 2.1 percent, to 1,191. The Nasdaq composite fell 51, or 1.9 percent, to 2,572.