Financial firms drag down U.S. markets

NEW YORK, June 18 (UPI) -- U.S. stock markets closed lower Wednesday with major financial firms continuing to exhibit signs of frailty.

Midwest regional bank Fifth Third Bancorp took heavy losses Wednesday, down 19.6 percent after announcing it would liquidate $1 billion in preferred stock, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Bigger institutions also lost ground. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. dropped 2.5 percent and Goldman Sachs Group fell 2.4 percent, the Journal reported.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 131.24 points to 12,029.06, off 1.08 percent at the close. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 13.09 points to 1,337.84 down 0.97 percent. The Nasdaq composite index fell 1.14 percent to 2,429.71, down 28.02 points.

On the New York Stock Exchange, 850 stocks advanced and 2,246 declined on volume of 1.282 billion shares traded.

The 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose 14/32 to yield 4.146 percent.

The euro traded at $1.5533 from Tuesday's $1.5512, while the dollar traded at 107.77 yen from Tuesday's 108.08 yen.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei index gained 104.45 points to 14,452.82, up 0.7 percent.

In London, the FTSE 100 index lost 105.00 points to 5,756.90, off 1.79 percent.