Investing.com – European stocks slumped on Tuesday amid mounting fears that Greece's debt crisis may spread to other cash-strapped euro zone nations in the so-called PIIGS - Portugal, Italy, Ireland and Spain.
During European afternoon trade, Germany's DAX was down 1.63%; France’s CAC 40 shed 2.01%; Britain's FTSE 100 index was down 1.73%; and the EURO STOXX 50 slid 2.39%.
Spain's IBEX 35 slumped 4.12% on rumors of an impending credit rating downgrade for the country, which was downgraded by one notch to AA by Standard & Poor's ratings services last week.
Fitch Ratings and Moody's Investors Service Inc. later moved to dispel the rumors, stating they both maintain their AAA ratings and stable outlooks for Spain's sovereign debt.
Bank were among the worst performers, with National Bank of Greece shedding 7.5% and Credit Agricole dropping 5.34%.
Earlier in the day, Reuters quoted a Moody's official as saying that a bailout of Greece was not the end of the country's fiscal crisis, since it still needed to meet the budget deficit targets it had agreed to.
The outlook for U.S. markets, meanwhile, was also dim: Dow Jones Industrial Average futures indicated a slide of 0.86%, S&P 500 Index futures pointed to a drop of 1.12% and Nasdaq 100 Index futures indicated a decline of 1.24%.
Later Tuesday, the National Association of Realtors, a U.S. industry group, was set to publish a report on pending home sales, a leading indicator of the housing market's health and that of the entire U.S. economy.
During European afternoon trade, Germany's DAX was down 1.63%; France’s CAC 40 shed 2.01%; Britain's FTSE 100 index was down 1.73%; and the EURO STOXX 50 slid 2.39%.
Spain's IBEX 35 slumped 4.12% on rumors of an impending credit rating downgrade for the country, which was downgraded by one notch to AA by Standard & Poor's ratings services last week.
Fitch Ratings and Moody's Investors Service Inc. later moved to dispel the rumors, stating they both maintain their AAA ratings and stable outlooks for Spain's sovereign debt.
Bank were among the worst performers, with National Bank of Greece shedding 7.5% and Credit Agricole dropping 5.34%.
Earlier in the day, Reuters quoted a Moody's official as saying that a bailout of Greece was not the end of the country's fiscal crisis, since it still needed to meet the budget deficit targets it had agreed to.
The outlook for U.S. markets, meanwhile, was also dim: Dow Jones Industrial Average futures indicated a slide of 0.86%, S&P 500 Index futures pointed to a drop of 1.12% and Nasdaq 100 Index futures indicated a decline of 1.24%.
Later Tuesday, the National Association of Realtors, a U.S. industry group, was set to publish a report on pending home sales, a leading indicator of the housing market's health and that of the entire U.S. economy.