U.S. stocks opened sharply lower Wednesday as European leaders prepared to meet on financial issues.
There is growing concern that Greece could exit the eurozone, the 17 nations that use the euro as currency.
In midmorning trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 137.48 points, 1.10 percent, to 12,365.33. The Standard & Poors 500 was down 13.38 points, 1.02 percent, to 1,303.25. The Nasdaq Composite was down 24.84 points, 0.87 percent, to 2,814.24.
The benchmark 10-year treasury note fell 2.47 percent to yield 1.729 percent.
The euro fell to $1.2598 from Tuesday's $1.2756. Against the yen, the dollar fell to 79.425 from Tuesday's 79.92 yen.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index was down 172.69, 1.98 percent, to 8,856.6.
