Investing.com - Stocks started in the red Friday, as weakness in Europe spurred by Italy’s new budget proposal carried over to New York and pressured financial stocks.
The Dow fell 41.56, or 0.16%, to 26,398.37, while the broader S&P 500 index fell 4.47, or 0.15%, to 2,909.53. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite slipped 13.50, or 0.17%, to 8,028.46.
Italy proposed a budget deficit for 2019 that was three times larger than the last budget. That puts it on a collision course with the European Commission.
Fiscal worries in Europe led to buying of U.S. Treasuries, pushing yields lower and pressuring financials.
JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) fell about 0.7%, Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) lost 0.6%, Citigroup (NYSE:C) dipped 1.4% and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) fell 1.2%.
In Italy, the FTSE MIB slumped 4%.
Germany’s DAX lost 1.8%, while in France the CAC 40 decreased 1% and in London the FTSE 100 was down 0.4%. The pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 lost 1.6%.
Tech shares started weaker as well, with Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) down about 0.3% and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) falling 0.4%.
Among individual stocks, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) tumbled 10.5% as investors fretted over the fate of CEO Elon Musk, who is being charged with securities fraud by the SEC over his tweet about taking the company private.
And JC Penney (NYSE:JCP) stock fell 2.3% after the company announced its chief financial officer, Jeffrey Davis, is resigning to pursue a new opportunity, just a year-and-a-half after taking the job.
In commodities, gold futures rose 0.13% to $1,188.90 a troy ounce, while crude oil futures increased 0.06% to $72.16 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, rose 0.39% to 95.26.