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U.S. stocks plunge as UK votes to quit EU

Xinhua, June 25, 2016 Adjust font size:

U.S. stocks opened sharply lower Friday following global rout, after Britain voted to leave the European Union in a historic referendum.

By midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 469.36 points, or 2.61 percent, to 17,541.71. The S&P 500 slumped 57.23 points, or 2.71 percent, to 2,056.09. The Nasdaq Composite Index plunged 156.67 points, or 3.19 percent, to 4,753.37.

The Leave camp won Britain's Brexit referendum on Friday morning by obtaining nearly 52 percent of ballots, pulling the country out of the 28-nation European Union (EU) after its 43-year membership.

Global stock markets took a hit by the outcome of the referendum. European equities nosedived Friday on the stunning referendum results, with German benchmark DAX index at Frankfurt Stock Exchange diving over 6 percent in the early trading.

In Asia, Tokyo shares also plummeted Friday on the results, with its benchmark Nikkei stock index losing nearly 8 percent, while Chinese benchmark Shanghai Composite Index dipped 1.30 percent to 2,854.29 points.

On the U.S. economic front, new orders for manufactured durable goods in May decreased 5.3 billion U.S. dollars, or 2.2 percent, to 230.7 billion dollars, the Commerce Department announced Friday.

"A pullback in May was expected but the larger than anticipated, broad-based decline serves to reinforce underlying weakness. A strong dollar and softening global growth has weighed on demand for US goods for much of the last two years," said Sophia Kearney-Lederman, an economic analyst at FTN Financial.

On Thursday, U.S. stocks posted solid gains as investors bet the U.K. would remain in the European Union after Britain's Brexit referendum. Endite