US Markets
Concerns about Greece's possible exit from the euro zone helped to push U.S. stocks to three-month lows, as the Dow industrials lost ground for the eighth time in nine sessions. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 125.25 points, or 0.98%, to 12695.35 Monday, its lowest close since January 31. The Standard Poor's 500-stock index declined 15.04 points, or 1.11%, to 1338.35 and the Nasdaq Composite shed 31.24 points, or 1.06%, to 2902.58. All 10 of the S&P 500's sectors fell, as financial and energy stocks were the benchmark's biggest decliners. J.P. Morgan Chase lost 3.2% and was the Dow's biggest laggard for the second straight session amid fallout from last week's trading loss of more than $2 billion. The company has shed nearly $20 billion in market-capitalization over its two-session skid. Bank of America fell 2.7%. Yahoo rose 2% after the company said Chief Executive Scott Thompson will resign in the wake of controversy over his academic record. Best Buy gained 1.5% after news its founder, Richard Schulze, will step down as chairman. Chesapeake Energy climbed 4.8% after The Wall Street Journal reported the natural-gas company expects activist investor Carl Icahn to disclose soon that he has taken a significant stake in the company. Avon Products advanced 3.8% after the company said it will consider Coty's recent bid to buy the company and will respond within a week. Ancestry.com slid 14% after NBC decided not to renew the "Who Do You Think You Are?" television show for a fourth season.

European Markets
Turbulent trading sent European stocks to a sharply lower close Monday, with the selling concentrated in banks and in resources companies. The Stoxx Europe 600 index skidded 1.8% to end at 247.43, after Greek anti-bailout party Syriza said over the weekend it wouldn't take part in a coalition government to help put austerity measures in place. If President Karolos Papoulias can't put a coalition together by Thursday, new elections will be held in June. Meanwhile, concerns that Greece could exit the euro zone are building. Analysts at J.P. Morgan said in a note to investors that even though the EuroStoxx 50 is down 14% since March, risks still outweigh potential rewards from bargain-hunting. They recommended investors stick with quality names and turn away from cyclicals and financials. Meanwhile, bond yields for peripheral countries soared. According to FactSet Research, the yield on Spain's 10-year government bond soared 22 basis points to well above 6%. Italy's 10-year government bond yield rose 25 basis points to 5.68%. Yields on safe-haven bonds for countries such as Germany neared record lows as investors sought shelter from the political vacuum in Greece. Against this backdrop, peripheral stocks came under pressure. The Athens General index tumbled 4.6% to 584.04, led by a 12% drop for Greek gambling company OPAP SA. Spain's IBEX 35 index dropped 2.7% to 6,809.40. Banks in Spain retreated after the government announced increased provisioning requirements. Shares of BBVA SA tumbled 3.7%, Banco Santander SA shed 3%, and recently nationalized lender Bankia SA dropped 9%. Moody's Investors Service said the measures will increase the country's debt burden, a credit negative for the sovereign. The FTSE MIB Italy index also saw steep declines, down more than 2.7% to 13,660.87, with UniCredit SpA trading down 4.9% and Telecom Italia SpA dropping some 4.7%. French oil major Total SA fell 1.9%, driving the CAC 40 index down 2.3% to 3,057.99 in Paris, along with losses for banks such as BNP Paribas SA, down 3.6%. The German DAX 30 index fell 1.9% to 6,451.97, led by a 4.1% drop for Deutsche Bank AG and a 3.8% fall for insurer Allianz SE. Chemicals group BASF SE also dropped, down 1.8%. London's resource-heavy FTSE 100 index sank 2% to 5,465.52, as BP PLC dropped 2.7% and Royal Dutch Shell PLC fell 2% in the energy sector. Miner Rio Tinto PLC saw its shares sink 3.2%.

Asian Markets
Asian stocks ended mixed Monday as investors weighed up efforts by China to boost its slowing economy against ongoing political worries over Europe. Japan's Nikkei finished 0.2% up at 8973.84, Korea's Kospi dropped 0.2% to 1913.73, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 1.2% to 19735.04 and the China Shanghai SE Composite fell 0.6% to 2380.73. The region's stock markets spent most of the trading day flipping between gains and losses as traders digested China's central bank move Saturday to lower the reserve requirement ratio for banks. The policy action, which comes into effect May 18, came just a day after China released a batch of disappointing economic data for April such as industrial production, which fell short of estimates. Any cheer from China's policy easing though was offset by continued concerns over the political situation in Europe, with the focus on Greece. Chinese bank stocks failed to rally after the reduction in the reserve ratio as loan growth data for April, released after the market closed Friday, came in much lower than expected. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China was down 2% and China Construction Bank fell 2.1%. Fashion retailer Esprit Holdings, which gets around 80% of its revenues from Europe, was the Hang Seng's worst performer, down 5.8%. Tencent Holdings on the other hand, was one of the only companies on the index to make any gains, up 0.7% ahead of first-quarter earnings out later this week. Takeda Pharmaceutical fell 3.2% to Y3,290 after its fiscal year net profit declined 49.9% on the year. Casio Computer also lost 3.2% to Y483 after the firm's group net profit of Y2.56 billion, while largely in line with forecasts, nevertheless left a negative impression on some analysts who cited weak forward guidance. Nissan Motor fell 2.0% to Y788 despite posting a solid fiscal year and raising its dividend.

Commodities
Base metals closed firmly lower on the London Metal Exchange Monday, pressured along with broad financial markets amid persistent concerns over Greece and its future in the euro zone. At the close, LME three-month copper was 2.2% lower on the day at $7,840 a metric ton, having earlier fallen to a four-month low at $7,813/ton. Tin fell by the same margin, closing 2.2% lower at $20,045/ton. Crude-oil futures fell 1.4% Monday to a fresh 2012 low below $95 a barrel amid mounting worries about the state of Greece's economy and rising global oil supplies. Light, sweet crude oil for June delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange settled $1.35 lower at $94.78 a barrel, the weakest level since Dec. 19, 2011. The contract has lost 10.7%, or $11.38 a barrel, with declines in eight of the past nine days. Traders said oil prices are heading for a critical juncture around $92.50 a barrel. A break of that level could clear the way for a run toward $85 a barrel, a level not touched since last October. Gold futures slumped to a fresh low for 2012 on mounting concerns about the future of Europe's currency union as Greece struggles to form a coalition government. The most actively traded contract, for June delivery, fell $23.00, or 1.5%, to settle at $1,561.00 a troy ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.