Stock Futures Drop as North Korea Orders Military to Prepare for Combat

Jonathan Burgos and Adam Haigh
Bloomberg
May 25, 2010

U.S. stock futures fell, indicating the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index may slip to 2010’s lowest level, as bank borrowing costs rose and a report said North Korean leader Kim Jong Il ordered his military to prepare for combat.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lost 1.8 percent as the rate banks say they pay for three-month loans in dollars increased to 0.536 percent, the highest since July 7, according to the British Bankers’ Association. Ford Motor Co. and Apple Inc. fell more than 2.5 percent on concern that Spain’s ailing banks signal a widening Europe debt crisis that may curb global growth.

S&P 500 futures expiring in June dropped 2.5 percent to 1,044.40 at 7:50 a.m. in New York. The index’s lowest close of the year was 1,056.74 on Feb. 8. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures retreated 210 points, or 2.1 percent, to 9,833.

“The troubles that we have are big enough to keep this downtrend going for quite some time,” said Philippe Gijsels, head of research at BNP Paribas Fortis Global Markets in Brussels. “Everybody realizes this is going to put severe stress on economic growth. Tension between South and North Korea is another additional negative that is spooking markets.”

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This article was posted: Tuesday, May 25, 2010 at 7:46 am

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