Strongest Dollar in 12 Years Sinks Stocks as Crude, Copper Slide
A Wall St. sign hangs outside the New York Stock Exchange, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2007 in New York. U.S. stocks plunged, wiping out about $600 billion in market value and erasing all of the year's gains, after a selloff in China spread globally and sparked the biggest rout since the bull market began in 2002.
Daniel Acker/Bloomberg News.The strongest dollar in nearly 12 years versus the euro and the specter of higher U.S. interest rates fueled a selloff in global equities that sent the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index down the most since Jan. 5. Oil and copper also declined.
The S&P 500 fell 1.7 percent by 4 p.m. in New York, slipping below its average price for the past 50 days and erasing its gains in 2015. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 333 points, also its biggest slide since Jan. 5. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.9 percent, as the euro weakened 1.4 percent to $1.0698 and a gauge of 20 emerging-market currencies fell for a ninth day. Yields on 10-year German securities dropped to a record, with the yield gap between 10-year Treasuries and bunds the widest since 1989. U.S. crude slid below $49 a barrel while copper dropped the most since January.