Stock Markets Fall Amid Concern About Europe’s Economy

New measures in Germany to ban naked short selling, uncertainty over financial regulation in the United States and persistent Euro zone troubles ganged up with Thursday’s disappointing jobless claims and signs of lagging economic indicators to smother any optimism about corporate results or signs of a recovery that might have lifted sentiment.

Companies that rely on business in overseas markets took a hit, as industrial, materials, energy and financial stocks were among the sectors that traded lower on Wall Street. Crude oil fell, as did industrial metals, like copper, a bellwether of manufacturing activity.

The yield on the 10-year treasury note fell to its lowest level this year, 3.21%.

“There is no sector that is being spared,” said Anthony Conroy, head equity trader at BNY ConvergEx Group. “You have heard the phrase flight to quality? We are having a flight to liquidity. Everybody is trying to get liquid. Gold, oil, silver, financials — every sector is getting hit.”

Jim Dunigan, managing executive of investments for PNC Wealth Management, said the market was plagued by euro zone troubles and uncertainty over financial regulation in the United States.

“When there is that much uncertainty you are not going to get a lot of risk taking,” Dunigan said. “That clouds the picture of a sustainable recovery in the United States.”

On Thursday, the U.S. Senate voted to close debate on a financial regulatory bill, putting Congress on path to approving a broad expansion of government oversight of the increasingly complex financial markets that is intended to prevent a repeat of the 2008 economic crisis.

While there have been recent indicators suggesting an economic recovery in the United States, the Labor Department delivered some disappointing figures on Thursday for new claims for unemployment benefits, saying they rose by 25,000, to 471,000. Analysts had expected the weekly claims to drop.