Stocks slip on stalled Greece debt talks

Stocks fell on Monday after Greece’s efforts to reach a debt restructuring with creditors stalled hampering European leaders’ push to shift the market’s focus to jobs and growth.

Negotiations between the Greek government and private bondholders over the restructuring of 200 billion euros of debt made progress over the weekend but a final agreement could not be reached before the start of a summit of European leaders.

Until this deal is actually done there are going to be concerns. The longer it takes there is more suspicion that there is something wrong said Michael Yoshikami chief investment strategist at YCMNet Advisors in Walnut Creek California.

They’ve been saying they’re on the verge of a deal for a long time.

The European summit initially was to focus on ways to revive growth and create jobs in a climate of fiscal austerity.

Germany sought to tone down reports it was pushing for Greece to give up control over its budget policy to European institutions. Greece was unlikely to accept that scenario presenting yet another obstacle to a second bailout package for Athens.

The financial sector .GSPF down 1.5 percent was the biggest drag on the S&P 500. Bank of America BAC.N fell 3.2 percent to 7.06.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI dropped 67.62 points or 0.53 percent to 12592.84. The S&P 500 index .INX lost 7.86 points or 0.60 percent to 1308.47. The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC fell 8.94 points or 0.32 percent to 2807.61.

The major indexes were earlier down more than 1 percent.

Despite Monday’s decline some traders stressed the resilience of U.S. stocks. Even though the euro zone crisis drags on the S&P 500 was on track for its best month since October helped by stronger U.S. economic data.

Apple AAPL.O shares helped cap losses on the Nasdaq after Morgan Stanley said the iPhone maker could add China Telecom 0728.HK and China Mobile 0941.HK as distributors over the next year. Apple rose 1.3 percent to 453.02.

Swiss engineering group ABB ABBN.VX agreed to buy U.S. electrical components maker Thomas & Betts Corp TNB.N for 3.9 billion in cash sending shares of the company up 22.4 percent to 71.08.

Consumer spending the main pillar of the U.S. economy was flat in December as households added to savings after the largest rise in income in nine months. Although the data pointed to a slow start for spending in 2012 economists were cautiously optimistic that an improving labor market will support demand.

Editing by Kenneth Barry

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