US stocks drop; Citi and other big banks fall hard

U.S. stocks are edging lower in late morning trading with bank stocks leading the way down.

Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley are down nearly 6 percent. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lost more than 4 percent, the biggest drop among the 30 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial average.

Stocks opened higher Monday but quickly turned after an hour of trading. Cautious comments from the head of the European Central bank soured any hopes the ECB would find a resolution to Europe’s debt crisis anytime soon.

The Dow fell 64, or 0.5 percent to 11,802 as of 11:45 a.m. Eastern time. The S&P 500 index fell 9 points, or 0.8 percent, to 1,220. The Nasdaq composite index fell 16, or 0.6 percent, to 2,538.

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