Dow falls 203, interrupting 2012 rally

Stocks suffered their biggest losses in three months Tuesday, the first hiccup in a strong and steady rally to start the year. Wall Street worried about the global economy and waited while Greece pressured the last investors to sign on for its bailout.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 200 points, giving up more than a quarter of its 745-point advance since Jan. 1, the best start to a year in the U.S. market since 1998.

The sell-off, which spread west from Europe, also interrupted a period of unusual calm on Wall Street. Before Tuesday, the Dow had not fallen 100 points for 45 straight trading sessions, the longest streak since 2006.

The decline of 203.66 points was the worst for the Dow since Nov. 23 and left the average at 12,759.15. It was only last week that the Dow closed above 13,000 for the first time since May 2008, four months before the worst of the financial crisis.

But investors realized that Greece's debt problems, Europe's economic problems and Israel's Iran problems were still very much their problems, too.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 20.97 points, its worst decline since Dec. 8, to 1,343.36. The Nasdaq composite index dropped 40.16 points to 2,910.32.