Poor US data triggers shares slide

Stocks on Wall Street collapsed, eliminating all the gains and more from Tuesday’s surge.

More disappointing readings on private-sector job growth and manufacturing activity prompted the sell-off, which also hit the US dollar and oil prices. The selling accelerated in the late afternoon after Moody's Investors Service again cut the rating of Greek government debt.

At the close (8am NZ time), the Dow Jones Industrial Average had plunged 279.65 points, or 2.2%, to 12,290.14. Bank of America led the blue-chip index lower, falling 3.8%, while Alcoa dropped 3.4% and Caterpillar declined 3.2%.

The last time the Dow dropped more than 200 points on a closing basis was March 16.

The S&P 500 index was down 2.3%, to 1314.55, dragged down by the financial and material sectors. The Nasdaq Composite also dropped 2.3%, to 2769.19.

Other markets: Europe falls, Asia holds
European stocks ended sharply lower in the wake of disappointing US data, with banks and oil producers among the decliners. Axa climbed after announcing plans to cut costs.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index lost 1% to 278.38.

The FTSE 100 index closed down 1% at 5928.61 after five consecutive sessions of gains. The index fell 1.3% for May, its worst monthly performance since March.

Germany's DAX was off 1% at 7217.43 and France's CAC-40 fell 1.1% to 3964.81.

Many Asian markets ended with small gains on after data showed Chinese manufacturing activity continued to ease in May, but not slow enough to raise an alarm.

The Shanghai Composite index ended little changed at 2743.57 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index slipped 0.2% to 23,626.43.

Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rose 0.3% to 9719.61, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was little changed at 4707.28, Korea's Kospi dropped 0.1% to 2141.34,

Taiwan's Taiex added 0.8% to close at 9062.35 and India's Sensex rose 0.6% to 18,608.81.

Commodities: Oil down, gold up
Oil futures slid below $US101 a barrel after disappointing readings on the US economy.

Light, sweet crude for July delivery fell $US1.88, or 1.9%, to $US100.82 in New York. Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange, which has traded at a premium to the Nymex contract for the past several months, fell $US1.78, or 1.5%, to $US114.95 a barrel.

Gold futures rose on concerns about another bailout for Greece. The contract for June delivery was up $13.50, or 0.9%, at $US1,549.40 an ounce in New York.

Currencies: US dollar falls
The US dollar touched a two-week low of ¥80.66 before rebounding to ¥80.79, compared with ¥81.53 late in New York on Tuesday.

The yen is typically seen as the currency most sensitive to US data releases. The also fell to a fresh record low of 0.83950 Swiss franc before rebounding to 0.8408 franc, compared with 0.8529 franc late on Tuesday.

The euro strengthened to $US1.4411 from $US1.4392, but it weakened to ¥116.46 from ¥117.33. The UK pound weakened to $US1.6376 from $US1.6454.

The euro also set a record low against the franc, in part fuelled by the heavy sell-off in the dollar.