S&P 500 posts worst day in two months on rate worries

Panic strikes the market again, the Dow plunging a whopping 333 points wiping out all the gains for the year. Once again the culprit is investor fears of what might happen at the Fed next week regarding interest rate hikes in the aftermath of the really strong February jobs report.  Of course most experts expect this to be quite temporary.  And today's pullback may very well prove to be a good thing if the Fed really does take the feared action next Tuesday.  But if instead it continues to do what it's been doing all along. which is almost certainly what it will do, then some smart people are going to be making a lot of money buying in on the low. Volume was above average at 7 billion.

S&P 500 posts worst day in two months on rate worries

BY CAROLINE VALETKEVITCH

DJ:          17,662.94  -332.78            NAS:      4,859.80  -82.64 S&P:      2,044.16  -35.27

NEW YORK Tue Mar 10, 2015 4:41pm EDT

(Reuters) - U.S. stocks dropped on Tuesday, giving the S&P 500 its biggest decline in two months, on increasing views the Federal Reserve may raise rates as soon as June.

The Dow and S&P 500 ended in negative territory for the year, with the S&P 500 off 3.5 percent from its March 2 record closing high.

Those Fed worries pushed the U.S. dollar to a nearly 12-year peak against the euro EUR=, and added to concerns the dollar will continue to weigh on U.S. multinationals' earnings.

Friday's stronger-than-expected jobs report was largely behind the recent rate jitters.

"The issue out there has been the strong employment report, which has set off fears of an interest rate hike by the Fed sooner or more aggressively than had been anticipated," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer of Solaris Group in Bedford Hills, New York.

All 10 of the S&P 500 sectors ended lower. Financial and technology sectors, each down more than 2 percent, were the biggest drags. Shares of Wells Fargo (WFC.N) were down 2.5 percent at $53.29.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI fell 332.78 points, or 1.85 percent, to 17,662.94, while the S&P 500 .SPX lost 35.27 points, or 1.7 percent, to 2,044.16, its biggest daily percentage decline since Jan. 5.  The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 82.64 points, or 1.67 percent, to 4,859.80.

The euro EUR= was last down 1.4 percent at $1.0696 after hitting $1.0691, the lowest in almost 12 years.

"For large-cap U.S. multinationals, what will the be the cost of hedging and the impact on earnings growth?" said Oliver Pursche, chief executive officer of Bruderman Brothers in Suffern, New York.

Shares of IDT Corp (IDT.N) dropped 21.2 percent to $16.30, a day after it released results.

On the upside, Urban Outfitters Inc (URBN.O) rose 11.5 percent to $44.06, the S&P 500's biggest daily percentage gainer, after reporting earnings late Monday that beat expectations.

About 7 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, above the 6.5 billion average for the month to date, according to BATS Global Markets.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 2,256 to 835, for a 2.70-to-1 ratio; on the Nasdaq, 2,077 issues fell and 664 advanced, for a 3.13-to-1 ratio.

The S&P 500 posted five new 52-week highs and 15 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 44 new highs and 87 new lows.