Stocks have moved notably lower over the course of early trading on Tuesday, adding to the losses posted in the previous session. The major averages have slid firmly into negative territory, with the Dow falling to a five-month intraday low.
In recent trading, the major averages have seen further downside, falling to new lows for the session. The Dow is down 149.62 points or 0.9 percent at 17,533.96, the Nasdaq is down 67.75 points or 1.4 percent at 4,924.19 and the S&P 500 is down 17.46 points or 0.8 percent at 2,051.30.
The sell-off on Wall Street comes amid continued concerns about the Greek debt crisis after the Greek people voted on Sunday to reject the austerity measures proposed by the country's international creditors.
The "no" vote on the referendum has added to recent worries about Greece leaving the eurozone, a move commonly known as the "Grexit."
European finance ministers are scheduled to meet later in the day as part of a last-ditch effort to reach a new bailout agreement.
Jonathan Loynes, Chief European Economist at Capital Economics, said, "It is still just about possible to imagine some sort of agreement coming together which would keep Greece inside the currency union, in the short term at least."
"It would presumably lie somewhere between the creditors' last offer - rejected by the Greek public in last weekend's referendum - and the latest counter-offer advanced on June 30th by [Prime Minister] Tsipras," he added.
However, Loynes said it might very soon be time to accept the inevitable and refocus efforts on how best to manage the Grexit.
The selling pressure also reflects a sharp drop by commodities prices, which is contributing to significant weakness among resource socks.
Gold stocks are posting particularly steep losses, resulting in a 3.7 percent decrease by the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index. The weakness in the sector comes as gold for August delivery is plunging $22.80 to $1,150.40 an ounce.
Outside of the resource sector, considerable weakness is as also visible among semiconductor, financial, and networking stocks.
Meanwhile, the Commerce Department released a report before the start of trading showing that the U.S. trade deficit widened in the month of May.
The report said the trade deficit widened to $41.9 billion in May from a revised $40.7 billion in April. Economists had expected the deficit to widen to $42.7 billion.
The wider deficit came as the value of exports slid 0.8 percent to $188.6 billion, while the value of imports edged down 0.1 percent to $230.5 billion.
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance during trading on Tuesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index shot up by 1.3 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slumped by 1 percent.
Meanwhile, the major European markets have all come under pressure on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index has tumbled by 1.1 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index are both down by 1.7 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries have moved notably higher amid the sell-off on Wall Street. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is down by 8.4 basis points at 2.194 percent.
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