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Global markets fall as New Year holiday nears

NEW YORK – Lingering concerns about the political future of Greece pushed U.S. and global stock markets modestly lower on Tuesday.

Trading was slow as most investors have closed their books for 2014. It was the eighth-slowest day of the year on the New York Stock Exchange.

As been the case several times this year, investors turned their eyes to Europe.

Greek stocks stabilized after a volatile day Monday, when the country’s government was forced to call elections that could create more economic turmoil. Investors worry that the elections might be won by the left-wing opposition Syriza party, which opposes the austerity measures associated with Greece’s international financial rescue deal. The Athens stock market plunged as much as 11 percent on Monday before recovering some of those losses to close down 4 percent that day.

“An election puts all sorts of doubt on the future of the bailout agreement,” said Stan Shamu, a market strategist at IG Markets. “Potentially markets had already priced this in, but I would still remain cautious around Greece.”

U.S. stocks opened lower and stayed down throughout the day. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 55.16 points, or 0.3 percent, to 17,983.07. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 10.22 points, or 0.5 percent, to 2,080.35 and the Nasdaq composite fell 29.47 points, or 0.6 percent, to 4,777.44.

European markets also fell. France’s CAC 40 lost 1.7 percent, Germany’s DAX declined 1.2 percent and Britain’s FTSE 100 dropped 1.3 percent. Greece’s stock market fell 0.4 percent.

At this point, most investors are done trading for the year. The market is also expected to be quiet Wednesday ahead of New Year’s Day holiday. However, oftentimes the last trading day of the year does see a modest burst of trading as some investors shift their portfolios around for tax purposes.

With one more trading day in 2014, the S&P 500 is up 12.6 percent for the year, or 15.4 percent including dividends.



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