SF: S&P 500 Retreats From Almost 4-Year High as Yen Gains, Oil Falls
Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Stocks fell, pulling the Standard & Poor's 500 Index down from an almost four-year high, as the Group of 20 nations rebuffed calls from the euro area to boost international lending resources. Brent crude snapped a five-day rally and the yen strengthened.
The S&P 500 slipped 0.5 percent to 1,359.0 at 10:07 a.m. in New York, trimming losses after a gauge of pending home sales topped estimates. The MSCI All-Country World Index slid 0.8 percent after closing last week at the highest since Aug. 1. Brent oil retreated from a nine-month high. The yen gained against all 16 of its most-traded peers and the yield on the 10- year U.S. Treasury note decreased five basis points to 1.93 percent. The cost of insuring against default on European corporate debt rose for the first time in three days.
The G-20 told Europe to come up with more financial firepower before they will consider lending outside support. The world economy is "not out of the danger zone," International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said. The European Central Bank will offer unlimited three-year funds, with banks set to take 470 billion euros ($629 billion), according to the median of 28 estimates in a Bloomberg survey, compared with 489 billion euros at the tender Dec. 21.
"Europe still has work to do in terms of the great bailout and there seems to be some things various parties can't agree upon, so that's winding down on the market at the moment," said Matt Riordan, who helps manage $6.8 billion in Sydney at Paradice Investment Management Pty.
Retreat After Rally
The S&P 500 halted a two-day advance and retreated from the highest level since June 2008. The benchmark index pared losses after pending sales of existing homes increased 2 percent following a 1.9 percent decrease the prior month that was smaller than previously estimated, National Association of Realtors data showed. The median forecast of 44 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for a 1 percent rise.
Reports later this week may show manufacturing accelerated for a fourth straight month in February, consumer confidence improved and Americans picked up the pace of spending a month earlier, according to Bloomberg surveys of economists.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index retreated 0.9 percent. Nokia Oyj sank 5.8 percent as the world's third-largest smartphone maker by shipments revealed its latest devices at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S retreated 3.8 percent after saying its container line, the world's largest, will post a loss again this year, depressed by lower freight rates and slower market growth. Air France-KLM Group and Deutsche Lufthansa AG slipped more than 4 percent.
The Markit iTraxx Crossover Index of contracts on 50 mostly junk-rated companies climbed 14 basis points to 587.5, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Yen Rallies
The yen appreciated 1.1 percent against the dollar and climbed 1.6 percent versus the euro. The 17-nation currency slipped 0.5 percent to $1.3376. The Dollar Index rose 0.4 percent.
Brent crude decreased 0.8 percent to $124.46 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange, after gaining 4.9 percent last week. Copper for delivery in three months fell 1 percent on the London Metal Exchange. The S&P GSCI gauge of 24 commodities fell for the first time in eight sessions, declining 0.4 percent, after touching a nine-month high on Feb. 24.
Natural gas rose 1.5 percent after earlier dropping as much as 2.6 percent. The fuel is down 14 percent this year amid a warm U.S. winter. Warren Buffett, who bought about $2 billion in bonds of power company Energy Future Holdings Corp., said the investment is at risk of losing all its value after natural gas prices fell. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. wrote down the debt by $390 million last year, following a $1 billion impairment in 2010, the billionaire said in his annual letter to shareholders posted Feb. 25 on the company's website.
The MSCI Emerging Markets Index fell 1 percent, after reaching a six-month high on Feb. 24. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index of Chinese shares listed in Hong Kong fell 1.3 percent and India's Sensex index lost 2.7 percent. South Korea's Kospi Index dropped 1.4 percent.
--With assistance from John Deane, Mark Gilbert, Will Hadfield, Abigail Moses, Daniel Tilles, Stephen Voss and Jason Webb in London. Editor: Michael P. Regan
To contact the reporters on this story: Stephen Kirkland in London at skirkland@bloomberg.net; Lynn Thomasson in Hong Kong at lthomasson@bloomberg.net
