Wall Street falls as gold hits new high

Stocks on Wall Street dropped as the US debt impasse continued over the weekend and into Monday.

At the close (8am NZ time), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 88.36 points, or 0.7%, to 12,592.80 in a choppy session.

The possibility of a US default and a further downgrade of Greece's credit rating helped push gold prices to record highs and the Swiss franc to an all-time high against the dollar. Other world sharemarkets fell.

The S&P 500 index was down 0.6%, at 1337.43, with telecommunications and financial stocks leading decliners and utilities and technology components leading advancers.

The Nasdaq Composite also fell 0.6% to 2842.80.

Other markets: Europe, Asia fall on debt impasse
European stocks ended mostly lower. The Stoxx Europe 600 index closed down 0.3% at 271.28. The UK's FTSE 100 index fell 0.2% to 5925.26, France's CAC-40 index ended down 0.8% at 3812.97, but Germany's DAX managed to close up 0.2% at 7344.54.

In Asia, Chinese shares tumbled on lingering worries about the nation's economic-growth outlook, with railway stocks hit especially hard after a high-speed rail system accident over the weekend. The Shanghai Composite Index ended at 2688.75, a 3% drop – its worst one-day percentage loss since January.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index ended 0.7% lower at 22,293.29, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average fell 0.8% to 10,050.01, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index lost 1.6% at 4530.4, Taiwan's Taiex gave up 0.9% to 8683.51 and Korea's Kospi finished down 1% at 2150.48

India's Sensex went its own way, gaining 0.8% to 18,871.29.

Commodities: Gold hits record
Gold for July delivery settled $10.70, or 0.7%, at $US1612.20 an ounce in New York, a new record close. Intraday trading hit $US1624.30, also a record.

Currencies: US dollar slides
The US dollar touched an all-time low against the Swiss franc and fell against other currencies.

The euro recovered against the dollar. The euro was at $US1.4381 compared with $US1.4358 late on Friday. The dollar was at ¥78.25 from ¥78.55, while the euro was at ¥112.53 from ¥112.98.

Meanwhile, the UK pound slipped to $US1.6295 from $US1.6300. The dollar bought 0.8059 franc from 0.8192 franc.