Greece woes continue; financials weigh on U.S. stock market

Fears about the sovereign debt of peripheral European nations continued on Monday as investors showed dissatisfaction with the stance of European G7 members.

Although it traded up earlier today, the S&P 500 dropped 2.27 points, or 0.21 percent, to trade at 1,063.82 at 2:38 p.m. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 49.04 points, or 0.49 percent, to trade at 9,963.19.

Financials, which have been depressed throughout today's trading session, are now leading the decline; the Dow Jones U.S. Financials Index is down 1.18 percent.

Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) is down 1.60 percent and JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) is down 0.87 percent. European banks fared worse. Royal Bank of Scotland (NYSE:RBS) American Depositary Receipts were down 2.82 percent.

For ADRs of National Bank of Greece (NYSE:NBG) listed on the New York Stock Exchange, the heavy selling shows no signs of abating. It is down 10.41 percent today to trade at $3.53 On October 14, 2009, it was trading at $8.36.

Greek stocks are struggling today. Its market fell while those of Germany and U.K closed higher. The spread between Greek and German government bonds widened today. The cost of insuring Spanish, Portuguese, and Greek government debt all rose today.

Greece was a topic of debate during the Group of 7 conference in Canada on Saturday.

G7 members continue to reject the option of an IMF bailout. They concluded that they are confident about Greece's austerity plans and will monitor its progress.

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