Washington’s Debt Negotiations Add To Worries On Wall Street: Acadiana Business Index

Stocks fell in confluence of frayed nerves over Europe's sovereign debt, technical trading levels and fresh worries over Washington's debt negotiations. Mark Lasseigne has your market report on today's Acadiana Business Index.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 135 points, to 11,771.

• Spain was forced to offer record yields at its government bond auction today.  The higher yields reflected higher risk to the bonds, and escalated concerns that large economies previously considered safe bets, could see borrowing costs rising to levels that cannot be sustained.

• The downdraft also coincided with the release of commentary by Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Pianalto, saying that Europe "could well be headed for a recession" and that such a recession could trim 0.5% from U.S. GDP.

• And, the U.S. Congress deficit super-committee members remain at odds in reaching a deal.  The bipartisan panel has less than a week to reach agreement on how to reduce the federal budget deficit by at least $1.2 trillion over 10 years.

• Sears Holdings dropped 4.5% to 65.19 after the department-store reported a wider-than-expected loss.
• Applied Materials fell 7.5% to 11.53 after the chip-equipment maker reported better quarterly results, but indicated that first-quarter earnings and revenue would be below forecasts.

• Crude oil closed at $98.82 a barrel.

• And Gold settled at $1,720 an ounce.