Market Recap: Stocks Sharply Lower on Doubt Over Europe’s Crisis Plan

Markets closed down on Wall Street today:

• Dow -1.34 percent
• S&P -1.49 percent
• Nasdaq -1.31 percent
• Oil -1.28 percent
• Gold -2.78 percent

On the commodities front:

• Oil (NYSE:USO) fell to $98.14 a barrel
• Gold (NYSE:GLD) down to $1,669.10 an ounce
• Silver (NYSE:SLV) fell 2.77 percent to settle at $31.36

(Related: Greece Hopes for Debt Swap Deal by End of January)

Today’s markets were down because:

1) Europe: While news on Friday that European leaders had reached deal for a new intergovernmental treaty fueled a market rally, the euphoria has died down as EU leaders head home. Once they get back, they will be faced with the difficult task of convincing their politicians to pass measures that will involve forfeiting a significant amount of fiscal sovereignty.

Moody’s added to the fray when it warned of a downgrade risk for European nations, echoing a move by Standard & Poor’s last week.

2) Banks: Financial stocks were again in focus as the biggest reactors to European debt concerns. Shares of Citigroup, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan were all down between 3 and 7 percent on Monday.

3) Intel: A worldwide hard drive shortage caused by massive floods in Thailand had Intel warning that it will badly miss its sales forecast for the current quarter. Shares of Intel dropped more than 4 percent on the news, making the chipmaker one of the Dow’s worst performing stocks today.

[Editor’s note: the above is across post that originally appeared on Wall St. Cheat Sheet.]