UK vote to leave EU wreaking havoc in US markets
U.S. stocks are plunging in early trading after Britons voted to leave the European Union.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 500 points, or 2.8 percent, to 17,515 in the first few minutes of trading Friday.The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 57 points, or 2.7 percent, to 2,056x. The Nasdaq composite sank 158 points, or 3.2 percent, to 4,751. It was the biggest drop for U.S. stocks since September.
European markets fell even more. France’s benchmark index lost 8 percent and Britain’s fell 4 percent.The British pound plummeted to a 31-year low.Bond prices rose sharply. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note dropped to 1.56 percent from 1.75 percent a day earlier, a huge move.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, who led the fight for Britain to stay in the EU, says he’ll now resign before October.
President Barack Obama says the United States respects the decision of the people of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union and that the special relationship between Washington and London will endure.
Obama had strongly urged that the UK remain in the EU but said in a statement that the people have spoken. The president said that the United Kingdom and the European Union will remain “indispensable partners of the United States” even as they begin negotiating the future of their relationship.
