Wall Street rally runs out

Stocks on Wall Street plunged, ending a sharp rally that produced the biggest monthly point gain in its 115-year history.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 276.10 points, or 2.3%, to 12,062 at the close (9am NZ time).

Alcoa led the blue chips lower, falling 5.3%, while Bank of America shed 4.4%. All but one of the Dow's 30 components traded in negative territory; McDonald's rose fractionally.

The Dow surged 3.6% last week and is up12% in October.

The S&P 500 index was down 2.5%, to 1253.31, led lower by energy, material and financial stocks. The Nasdaq Composite shed 1.9% to 2684.41.

Other markets: Europe, Asia down
European stocks fell as uncertainties about the implementation of the recent euro-zone rescue package prevailed.

On the economic front, the OECD has warned weak growth and high unemployment could persist in advanced economies for two years. It expects the eurozone will expand by just 0.3% next year, down from its previous forecast of 2%.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index plunged 2.2% at 243.48 but rose 7.7% for the month.

London's FTSE 100 index fell 2.8% to 5544.22, Frankfurt's DAX declined 2.5% to 6188.09 and the CAC-40 index in Paris was 3.2% lower at 3242.84.

Asian stocks weakened, although some Japanese exporters got a lift after Tokyo intervened in the foreign-exchange market to send the yen sharply lower.

Nikkei Stock Average swung higher after the intervention news before pulling back to end with a 0.7% loss at 8988.39.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index dropped 0.8% to 19,864.87, while the Shanghai Composite Index ended down 0.2% at 2468.25.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index declined 1.3% to 4928.1 and Korea's Kospi lost 1.1% to 1909.03.

Commodities: Oil, gold down
Oil futures dipped below $US93 a barrel as currency concerns undercut the value of crude.

The US dollar rose after Japan intervened to weaken the yen.

Light, sweet crude for December delivery was down 99USc, or 1.1%, to $US92.33 a barrel in New York. Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange was down $US1.43, or 1.3%, to $US110.13 a barrel.

Gold futures also fell in the wake of the yen intervention. Prices touched a low of $US1707.40 an ounce before recovering.

The front-month contract for November delivery was at $US1726.30, down $US19.90, or 1.1% in New York.

Currencies: US dollar rises on yen intervention
The US dollar jumped against a broad array of currencies after the Japanese government spent an estimated ¥7 trillion ($US89.8 billion) on its first intervention since August.

The dollar was at ¥77.99, from a post-war low of ¥75.31 before the intervention, and compared with ¥75.83 late on Friday.

The euro was at $US1.3949 compared with $US1.4150 and the common currency was at ¥108.82 from ¥107.29.

The UK pound bought $US1.6058 from $US1.6126, while the dollar fetched 0.8726 Swiss franc from 0.8636 franc.