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The Standard & Poor's 500 index ended down 22.48 points, or 1.4 percent, at 1,608.90. The index is 3.6 percent below its record close of 1,669 reached May 21. It's still up 12.8 percent this year. The Nasdaq composite dropped 43.78 points, or 1.3 percent, to 3,401.48. The index closed at its lowest level in a month. Intel fell the most in the Dow, dropping 66 cents, or 2.6 percent, to $24.70. Aluminum maker Alcoa was close behind. It declined 18 cents, or 2.2 percent, to $8.20. All 30 members of the index dropped. The Dow has fallen for two days in a row. The index has gone without a three-day losing streak since December 26, a record 110 trading days, according to Schaeffer's Investment Research. As traders sold stocks Wednesday, they moved money into the haven of U.S. government bonds. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.09 percent from 2.15 percent late Tuesday. U.S. stocks joined a global rout that began in Asia. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index plunged after investors were disappointed at the lack of detail in a keynote speech on the economy from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The Nikkei fell 3.8 percent to 13,014. European stock markets also fell. Indexes slipped 2.1 percent in Britain, 1.9 percent in France, and 1.2 percent in Germany. "Everywhere is red," said Mark Schwartz, chief market strategist, at Lightspeed Financial. "It's just a sea of red and we're following in line."
The Nikkei has fallen 17 percent from its peak in mid-May, after soaring at the start of the year thanks to aggressive stimulus measures from the Bank of Japan. Some market watchers drew a parallel with the U.S., where central bank stimulus has also been pushing stock prices higher. "I'm very concerned about what's going on in Japan," said Doug Cote, chief market strategist at ING. "Some people might be scratching their head and saying that it could happen to us." Other world indexes have also had significant declines since May 22, when the worries over the Fed easing its stimulus escalated. The FT-SE 100 in Britain is down 6.2 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index is down 5.1 percent and Brazil's Bovespa is down 6.4 percent. In commodities trading, the price of crude oil rose 43 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $93.74 a barrel. Gold edged up $1.30 to settle at $1,398.50 an ounce. The dollar fell against the euro and the Japanese yen.
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