U.S. Stocks, Yen Up on Tokyo Quake

Stocks fell, dragging the Dow Jones Industrial Average down from an almost three-year high, while Treasuries erased losses and the yen rose as a magnitude 7.1 earthquake shook Japan less than a month after the nation’s worst temblor on record. Crude oil topped $109 a barrel.

The Dow slid 43.37 points, or 0.4 percent, to 12,383.38 at 12:02 p.m. in New York and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index dropped 0.3 percent. The iShares MSCI Japan Index Fund, an exchange-traded security tracking the nation’s equities, lost 0.6 percent, paring a drop of as much as 1.7 percent after Japan canceled a tsunami warning. Ten-year Treasury note yields were little changed at 3.54 percent after rising earlier. The yen strengthened against 15 of 16 major counterparts.

The earthquake hit 215 miles northeast of Tokyo, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in an e- mailed preliminary earthquake report, spurring concern that Japan will be hindered in its efforts to recover from a March 11 quake and tsunami that damaged nuclear reactors north of Tokyo.

“It’s created more uncertainty for the region,” said Thomas Garcia, head of equity trading at Santa Fe, New Mexico- based Thornburg Investment Management Inc., which oversees about $80 billion.

Cisco Systems Inc., DuPont Co. and General Electric Co. lost more than 1.1 percent to lead the Dow’s drop after the earthquake and amid growing concern an impasse over the federal budget may lead to a shutdown of the U.S. government.