S&P 500 experienced a sharp decline on
Wednesday as investors were concerned about Thursday's Italian long-term debt
auction. US benchmark index slipped 1.25% or 15.79 points to 1,249.64 and drove
into negative area for 2011 reaching minus 0.64% year to date change. All 10
industry groups faced a drop led by energy and natural resource stocks. Cliffs
Natural Resources Inc. fell 4.62% while Tesoro Petroleum Corp.
and Alpha Natural Resources descended 4.23% and 3.33% respectively.