US: Stocks fall on worries Turkish crisis will spread

[NEW YORK] Wall Street stocks finished lower Monday amid worries the Turkish currency crisis will spread to other emerging economies.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.5 per cent to close at 25,187.70.

The broad-based S&P 500 fell 0.4 per cent to 2,821.93, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.3 per cent to 7,819.71.

The declines in the US came after other leading equity bourses in Asia and Europe also pulled back as the Turkish lira tumbled to new lows against the euro and dollar.

The fall has revived worries of a repeat from 1997, when a fall in the Thai currency mushroomed into a much broader Asian economic crisis.

Emerging economy currencies already were under pressure due to Federal Reserve interest rate increases even before US tariffs on Turkey throttled the Turkish currency.

"The world borrowed a lot of dollars and the dollar is rising and the US interest rates are rising," said Karl Haeling of LBBW.

"This is a reminder that the Fed can't raise rates as much as they probably want to," he added. "There are negative consequences to the rising dollar."

US banking shares were among the weaker groups, with JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America all shedding at least 1.5 per cent.

Tesla Motors advanced 0.3 per cent after Chief Executive Elon Musk said he was in talks with the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund to financing his plan to take the electric car maker private.

The statement comes as Musk faces questions over his claim last week that he had "secured" financing for the deal.

Harley-Davidson slumped 4.4 per cent after President Donald Trump signaled support on Twitter for a boycott of the company if the motorcycle maker moved jobs overseas.

The Trump tweet revived a controversy from earlier in the summer after Harley announced plans to shift some production overseas due to European tariffs on US exports imposed in response to Trump's tariffs on the European Union.

Netflix shed 1.3 per cent after Chief Financial Officer David Wells said he would step down from the company.

AFP