US stocks fall on broad concerns about Europe

Associated Press

Stocks reversed an early rise on Wall Street on Monday as traders returned to worrying about the European economy.

Optimism about a deal to prevent financial collapse in Cyprus briefly had pushed the Standard & Poor’s 500 index to within a quarter-point of its record closing high, but stocks soon turned negative.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite index both closed down 0.3 percent. The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 0.4 percent.

Stocks turned negative about an hour into the trading day Monday as the initial euphoria about Cyprus’ deal to secure 10 billion euros in emergency funding was overshadowed by renewed concerns about the European economy.

The fear intensified after a top European official indicated that investors in struggling banks may be forced to take losses — an element of the Cyprus agreement that previously had been seen as unique to that country.

All 10 industry groups in the S&P 500 closed lower, with industrial and materials companies posting the biggest losses. Network technology company VMware Inc. dived after the website Business Insider reported that PayPal and eBay will remove its software from 80,000 servers.