Stocks, Commodities Tumble on Greek Troubles, Profit Taking

Equities and commodities plunged during Tuesday morning's trading session on renewed concerns that Greece and bondholders may not meet the deadline to finish the debt swap deal. Equities have been on a strong rally since January, trading up over 8% higher at its peak; investors may be taking profits from this recent rally. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 143 points to 12,823, breaching the key psychological 13,000 level within the last few days. The widely watched blue-chip index traded in a range between 12,806.83 and 12,958.73. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF SPY fell 1.19% to $135.07. The PowerShares QQQ Trust ETF QQQ, which tracks the performance of the Nasdaq 100, shed 1.22% to $63.47. The QQQ is up 13.76% in 2012. Crude oil also followed the stock market lower. NYMEX crude futures lost 1.67% to $104.91. The United States Oil Fund ETF USO lost about 2% at $40.16. Gold also was lower in a risk-off environment. COMEX gold futures lost 1.84% to $1,672.30. The SPDR Gold Trust ETF GLD is currently down 1.96% on the session at $162.40. COMEX silver futures is down 2.5% at $32.84. The U.S. Dollar also benefited from European uncertainty. The PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish ETF UUP, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of foreign currencies, added 0.54% to $22.21. The closely watched EUR/USD pair is currently trading down 0.72% at $1.3121.