US stocks rebound as Europe shares, euro retreat on Greece

THE STOXX 600 FELL A SECOND DAY AFTER ITS WORST SLIDE OF THE YEAR ON MONDAY

US stocks pared gains, while European equities dropped with the euro amid 11thhour wrangling before bailout funding for Greece ends. Treasuries extended the first quarterly retreat since 2013.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.3 per cent at 11.02am in New York, after tumbling 2.1 per cent on Monday. The index is little changed for the past three months after nine straight quarterly gains. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index slid 0.6 per cent, headed for its worst quarter since 2012. The euro lost 0.9 per cent to $1.1134, paring its first quarterly advance versus the dollar since early 2014. The yield on 10-year Treasury notes rose to 2.35 per cent, after tumbling 15 basis points Monday.

The Greek government asked for a two-year bailout programme from the European Stability Mechanism, though the proposal didn’t include any of the economic-reform measures negotiators had sought for months. The nation has until 6pm New York time to make a $1.7 billion payment to the International Monetary Fund as Europe’s funding expires.

“Investors are still reluctant to commit capital until we see better visibility in terms of an outcome to the Greek situation,” Bill Schultz, who oversees $1.2 billion as chief investment officer at McQueen, Ball & Associates Inc. in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, said by phone. “While people may downplay the contagion effect, there’s still uncertainty out there, and the market doesn’t like that.”

Quarterly moves

The S&P500 is poised to halt a four-day slide, though its drop Monday, the biggest since April 2014, left the index lower for the past three months. It’s down 0.1 per cent in the period, threatening to halt a streak of nine straight quarterly gains, the longest run since 1998.

The gauge fell within 5 points of its average price during the past 200 days. Stocks have only crossed the level once since 2012 — the period of last October’s sell-off, which gave way to an 11 per cent advance at the end of 2014.

“We got somewhat overdone yesterday,” Bruce Bittles, chief investment strategist at Milwaukee-based Robert W. Baird