Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/70726
8B Daily News – Tuesday, June 19, 2012 NEW YORK (AP) — Crisis-weary investors scoffed Monday at what had appeared to be a hopeful turn in the European debt crisis: a victory for pro- Europe parties in a Greek election. U.S. stocks were little changed, and borrow- ing costs for Spain surged to alarming levels. Investors appeared fed up with policy makers' inabili- ty to resolve a crisis that has bedeviled markets for more than three years. Leaders of US stocks meander as European debt crisis festers Wall Street the most developed coun- tries are meeting in Mexico to discuss the crisis and the slowing global economy. ''Even though we avoid- Research, a division of the Charles Schwab brokerage. U.S. indexes opened ed the worst-case scenario in Greece, the crisis has entered a new and danger- ous phase, and it doesn't end with Greece,'' said Michelle Gibley, director of interna- tional research at the Schwab Center for Financial lower then drifted between modest gains and losses. Homebuilders rallied after a measure of confidence among U.S. builders rose to a five-year high. Spanish borrowing rates spiked Monday above levels that forced other countries to take bailouts, a sign that bond investors fear Spain will default on its debts. The Dow Jones industri- al average closed down 25.35 points, or 0.2 percent, to 12,741.82. The Nasdaq composite index rose 22.53 points, or 0.8 percent, to 2,895.33. It was lifted by Apple, its biggest compo- nent, which rose $11.65, or 2 percent, to $585.78. Rival tech titan Microsoft will make a ''major'' announcement after the market closes. Many expect it to introduce a tablet com- puter that would compete with Apple's market-domi- nating iPad. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 1.94 points, or 0.1 percent, to 1,344.78. Of its 10 major industry cat- egories, only financials and energy stocks fell. Banks would be hit hard if the European crisis spun out of control. Energy companies followed oil prices lower. On Sunday, Greek voters elected a party that wants to continue a program of inter- national bailout loans that are conditioned on painful budget cuts. Traders had fretted for weeks that a radi- cal leftist party would pre- vail and reject Europe's unpopular bailout plan. The next step, traders feared, would be Greece's dropping the shared curren- cy. Anxiety over a Greek exit was so pronounced that many expected bank runs on Monday if political anti- bailout parties had won the election. Yet Greece's situation remains precarious. The anti-bailout party got a big chunk of the vote. There's also no guarantee that the winners will be able to form a government. Elec- tions a month ago failed to produce a governing coali- tion, leading to Sunday's do-over.