Stocks slide as euro falls to four-year low

Investors uneasy about the news coming out of Europe Tuesday went back to selling stocks sharply lower. The falling euro and news that German regulators plan to limit some kinds of short selling fed the drop.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell after giving up an early gain of 93. All three major indexes lost more than 1 percent.

The Dow fell 114.88 points, or 1.1 percent, to 10,510.95. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 16.14, or 1.4 percent, to 1,120.80, while the Nasdaq composite index fell 36.97, or 1.6 percent, to 2,317.26.

The euro gave stocks a boost early yesterday when 10 European Union countries sent bailout money to Greece. The move raised confidence about Europe's ability to prevent its debt crisis from spreading to other economies including the United States. By afternoon, though, the upbeat mood faded and the euro fell.

The euro, the currency shared by 16 European nations, has been driving stock trading for weeks as investors interpreted its slide as a sign of continuing problems in Europe. It hit a new four-year low against the dollar of $1.2162 Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Germany said it is banning "naked" short selling, which occurs when traders bet on a stock or investment they don't own. The government said it was imposing the ban in hopes of keeping the financial markets stable. Naked short selling was cited as one of the factors in world markets' turbulence during the 2008 financial crisis.- AP