U.S. stocks finished lower on Tuesday, as all three major indexes fell about 1 percent, after German and French leaders spoke about Europe's debt problems. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy met to discuss measures announced last month to contain the sovereign debt crisis and protect the euro. In world markets, European stocks ended mixed, with the FTSE 100 in Britain rising 0.1 percent and the DAX in Germany falling 0.5 percent. Asian markets also ended mixed, with the Shanghai Composite falling 0.7 percent and the Nikkei in Japan rising 0.2 percent. The U.S. dollar rose versus the euro but fell versus the yen. Light sweet crude oil for September delivery fell $1.23 to $86.65 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold futures rose $27 to $1,785.00 an ounce. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 76.97, or 0.7 percent, to 11,405.93. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 11.73, or 1.0 percent, to 1,192.76. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index fell 31.75, or 1.2 percent, to 2,523.45.
