Stocks point lower as overseas markets fall

[June 15, 2009]  NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. investors joined traders overseas in worrying that a three-month surge in stocks might be overdone.

Stocks fell in Europe and Asia on Monday, sending U.S. stock futures lower.

The drop comes as the Standard & Poor's index is up 39.9 percent since skidding to a 12-year low on March 9. The market's advance slowed last week as traders looked without much success for fresh signs the economy was strengthening.

The dollar rose against other most other major currencies following comments from Russia's finance minister. The stronger dollar pushed down oil prices. A run-up in oil has helped lift energy and materials stocks in recent weeks.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 1 percent. In afternoon trading, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 1.8 percent, Germany's DAX index 2.2 percent, and France's CAC-40 1.8 percent.

The slide weighed on U.S. stock futures. Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 88, or 1 percent, to 8,702. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 10.70, or 1.1 percent, to 930.00, while Nasdaq 100 index futures fell 17.00, or 1.1 percent, to 1,468.50.

Russia's finance minister, Alexei Kudrin, said during a weekend meeting of G-8 finance ministers in Italy that the dollar's status as the world's main reserve currency wasn't likely to change soon. He has been one of those in the Russian administration raising concern about the dollar in recent months.

The dollar was higher against most other major currencies, while gold prices fell.

Light, sweet crude fell 78 cents to $71.26 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Bond prices were mixed. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 3.75 percent from 3.80 percent late Friday. The yield on the three-month T-bill, considered one of the safest investments, was flat at 0.16 percent from Friday.

[Associated Press; By TIM PARADIS]

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