By Greg Peel

The Dow closed down 58 points or 0.5% while the S&P lost 0.4% to 1313 and the Nasdaq fell 0.7%.

European bond markets opened last night in the same mood as they closed on Monday ? one of abandoning southern eurozone debt in exchange for northern eurozone and US debt. The yield on the US ten-year bond had fallen another 12 basis points to 2.80% before markets opened in New York and Chicago. It seemed a slippery slope to hell.

EU officials and eurozone finance ministers meeting in Brussels then released a statement suggesting they are ready to adopt further measures to ensure Greece's sovereign debt crisis does not spread to other parts of the EU. This would involve more flexible facilities, lower interest rates, maturity extensions etc, etc.