? Brendan Mcdermid / Reuters / REUTERS
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
By msnbc.com news services
Updated at 1 p.m. ET: Stocks were down sharply Thursday as investors were skeptical that the latest European Union summit would agree on concrete measures to tackle the region's debt crisis.
The Dow Jones industrial average was lately down over 150 points.
Health-related shares were in focus after news that the Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of President Obama?s health care law.
Related: Hospital shares rise on health ruling, insurers fall
Financial shares were in also focus, with JPMorgan losing ground on a report that recent trading losses could reach $9 billion and Barclays stock down sharply in the aftermath of a probe into the manipulation of interbank lending rates.
EU leaders meet Thursday more openly divided than at any time since the euro crisis began, with Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel showing no sign of relenting in her refusal to back other countries' debts.
A spokesman for German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said that a report that Germany could be willing to move sooner than expected to accept shared liability of euro zone debt was not true.
Spanish benchmark 10-year yields hovered near the 7 percent level that recently forced other highly indebted countries to seek bailouts. Markets have been worrying that Spain, the euro zone's fourth-largest economy, will have to ask for financial help in excess of the 100 billion euros already approved for Madrid to bail out its banks.
Data showed the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell last week, but remained too high to signal any major improvement in the labor market.
"There are no surprises here. Claims are pretty much around where they were last week. This is a lackluster economy and I'm worried about what the June payroll will look like, but people are right now focused on health care and Europe," said Wayne Kaufman, chief market analyst at John Thomas Financial in New York.
Shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co dropped in the wake of a New York Times report projecting that losses from a recent botched trade could reach $9 billion in a worst-case scenario, more than four times the original estimate.
U.S.-traded shares of British bank Barclays tumbled a day after an investigation found it had manipulated interbank lending rates over several years, in a probe that could cost the financial industry billions of dollars.
Adding to the gloom in finance, Citi Investment Research posted a bearish note on several U.S. banks including Bank of America Corp and Goldman Sachs as the slow economic recovery hurts trading.
The board of News Corp approved in principle splitting the $60 billion media conglomerate into separate publishing and entertainment businesses, a person familiar with the situation said.
Commodity prices fell as the U.S. dollar strengthened against the euro, possibly hurting prices of stocks in the materials and energy sectors.
Reuters contributed to this report.
"I think it's a pretty clear negative catalyst for the next month or two," says Barry Knapp, Barclays, discusses the impact of the high court's health care ruling on the markets and U.S. economy.
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