U.S. stocks fell as an unprecedented Cyprus bank-deposit tax sparked renewed fears about Europe's debt crisis.
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The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 76 points, or 0.5%, to 14337 in the minutes after the opening bell. On Friday, the Dow snapped a 10-session win streak, the longest such run since November 1996.
The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index dropped 13 points, or 0.8%, to 1548. The Nasdaq Composite Index shed 29 points, or 0.9%, to 3220.
The euro tumbled versus the dollar. The price of the 10-year U.S. Treasury note surged as investors sought safe assets, pushing the yield down to a two-week low of 1.949%.
Investors around the world were rocked by news over the weekend that Cyprus would tax bank depositors to help fund a received a �10 billion ($13.08 billion) bailout from the troika of lenders made up of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund but with harsh conditions. The move is a first in the euro-zone crisis.
"The European banking system hasn't been all that healthy to begin with, and this is not going to help them," said David Joy, who helps oversee $680 billion in assets as chief market strategist at Ameriprise Financial . "It seems as though you can't let down your guard with what's going on in Europe."
The economic calendar is relatively light, with only the National Association of Home Builders' housing market index for March, which is expected to rise to 48 from February's 46, due out at 10 a.m. EDT.
Front-month March gold rose 0.9% to $1,606.20, topping $1,600 an ounce for the first time in three weeks, while April crude-oil futures lost 1% to $92.56 a barrel.
Write to Matt Jarzemsky at matthew.jarzemsky@dowjones.com and Tomi Kilgore at tomi.kilgore@dowjones.com
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