Stocks Opened Lower on Greece Fears

U.S. stocks opened lower on Tuesday on increased worries about a major banking crisis in Europe and expectations Greece would default soon. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately fell 179.55 points to 10,475.75. The S&P 500 dropped 17.40 points to 1,081.83. The Nasdaq Composite Index shed 20.15 points to 2,315.68.

European finance ministers are considering making banks take bigger losses on Greek debt and have delayed a vital aid payment to Athens until mid-November, setting up a crunch point in the euro zone’s sovereign debt crisis.

Apple Inc looks set to unveil a new iPhone on Tuesday after a 15-month hiatus, hoping to fend off hard-charging rivals running Google Inc’s Android and safeguard its lead with the fifth incarnation of the iconic device.

Swiss bank UBS AG (NYSE:UBS) said it expects to report a modest third-quarter net profit, easing concerns about the impact of the $2.3 billion rogue trading loss uncovered last month as the bank chalks up gains on credit derivatives.

Oil fell to near $76 a barrel Tuesday in Asia as fears intensified that Greece may not be able to crawl out from beneath a mountain of debt without defaulting. Benchmark crude for November delivery was down $1.54 to $76.08 per barrel at late afternoon Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange — its lowest since late September 2010.

Ford Motor Co. said Tuesday it signed a tentative, four-year labor agreement with the United Auto Workers union. The new deal, once ratified, calls for 12,000 new hourly jobs to be added in the U.S. by 2015, and includes work once outsourced to Mexico, Japan and China.