David Berman
RTGAM



North American stocks were down sharply in midday trading Tuesday after investors again became concerned about the Greek debt crisis following a credit downgrade there.

At noon, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 144 points, or 1.3 per cent, to 11,061. The broader S&P 500 was down 19 points or 1.6 per cent, to 1193.

Investors had plenty of upbeat news to chew on, including rising U.S. house prices in February, a better-than-expected reading on U.S. consumer confidence in April and a big fat earnings report from Ford Motor Co.

However, attention appeared to be focused overseas, where Standard & Poor's cut its credit rating on Greek government debt to junk status, with a "negative" outlook. With bailout plans still fuzzy, the concern is that this crisis is not yet over and could still spread to other countries whose budget deficits are out of control.

The selloff was widespread in the United States, where all 10 subindexes within the S&P 500 were down. However, riskier areas of the market that are more economically cyclical took the biggest hits. Materials fell 2.6 per cent, financials fell 2.3 per cent, consumer discretionary stocks fell 2.3 per cent and energy stocks fell 2.1 per cent.

Defensive areas fell, but not as severely. Health care stocks were the best performers, falling just 0.6 per cent. Telecom services fell 1 per cent and consumer staples fell 1.1 per cent.

In Canada, the S&P/TSX composite index was down 109 points, or 0.9 per cent, to 12,172.

Industrials were the worst hit, falling 1.8 per cent. Energy stocks fell 1.3 per cent after the price of crude oil fell slightly, to $83.58 (U.S.) a barrel. Materials fell 1 per cent and financials fell 0.9 per cent.

Health care stocks rose 0.3 per cent, but the group has a tiny weighting within the benchmark index. Information technology stocks rose 0.2 per cent on an enthusiastic response to Research In Motion Ltd.'s new operating system for upcoming BlackBerry wireless devices.