US markets slip on Italy elections and looming spending cuts in US

26 Feb 2013 Evaluate

The US markets slumped on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average witnessing its worst session this year, as Italian elections and looming spending cuts in the US hit sentiment. The investors tracked the outcome of national elections in Italy, where a potentially strong performance by Silvio Berlusconi’s coalition is seen as a threat to the nation’s austerity agenda. Italy may require another vote after partial election results suggested the four-way race may end in a divided parliament. Meanwhile, House Republican leaders stated that President Barack Obama should work out a deal with Senate leaders to head off sequester budget cuts set to begin. House Speaker John Boehner also dug in against raising taxes but added that cutting agriculture subsidies was some place to start slashing spending. A Democratic bill to be debated this week would cut some farm programs. Without a deal, $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts will begin on Friday.

Besides, Dennis Lockhart, the president of the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank, stated that the Federal Reserve should stick with its current $85 billion per month bond-buying program, at least into the second half of the year. Lockhart voiced that he doesn’t thinks that monetary policy has yet crossed the line where the benefits of the current policy -- specifically the quantitative easing element -- are swamped by serious concerns over problems the policy might be creating for the longer term.

On the economy front, the Chicago Fed’s national activity index fell to -0.32 in January from 0.25 in December, a reading that indicates the US economy is running below trend. The three-month average actually rose, to 0.30 in January from 0.23 in December, owing to significant upward revisions for November and December. The national activity index is a weighted indicator of 85 different readings, and the three-month average is designed so that readings below -0.70 indicate a recession has likely begun.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 216.40 points or 1.55 percent to 13,784.20, the Nasdaq dropped 45.57 points or 1.44 percent to 3,116.25 and the S&P 500 was down by 27.75 points or 1.83 percent to 1,487.85.

Indian ADRs closed mostly in red on Monday, ICICI Bank was down 0.48%, HDFC Bank was down 0.45% and Tata Motors was down 0.34%. On the flip side, Infosys was up by 1.10% and Wipro was up 0.02%.

© 2026 The Alchemists Ark Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved. MoneyWorks4Me ® is a registered trademark of The Alchemists Ark Pvt. Ltd.

×