May 24, 2010, 4:00 pm EDT — Closing Thoughts — The Standard & Poor’s 500 index closed down 14.24 to 1073.47, as U.S. financial markets are trading on FEAR and more questions than honest answers. … Meanwhile, the euro dropped after a bailout over the weekend of a regional bank in Spain, one of the countries already dealing with ballooning deficits. The Bank of Spain stepped in to rescue Cajasur after it failed to complete a merger. It was only the second time Spain’s central bank stepped in to bail out a regional lender. … The euro fell against the dollar, dropping to $1.2405. The 16-nation currency has become a symbol of investors’ concern about the continent’s economy in recent weeks. Traders have been dumping the euro on fears that massive debts will cause a default by a weaker country in the European Union. The euro hit a four-year low last week. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.1 percent, Germany’s DAX index dropped 0.4 percent, and France’s CAC-40 rose less than 0.1 percent. China’s Shanghai Composite index jumped 3.5 percent.”Uncertainty” is the new word about whether countries like Greece, Spain and Portugal will be able to contain mounting debt through steep spending cuts. Investors are also worried that those budget cuts will upend an economic recovery in Europe and slow a worldwide rebound. … The National Association of Realtors (NSR) issued another of its bogus reports, claiming, in part, that sales of previously owned homes rose 7.6 percent to an annual rate of 5.77 million. That is the best showing in five months and ahead of expectations. NSR failed to adjust the numbers to consider buyers that jumped in to meet a deadline for a tax credit. … Major indexes are down about 10 percent from their highs of the year, set in late April. That size drop is known as a “correction.” It’s the first retreat of that scale since stocks began a largely uninterrupted advance off of 12-year lows reached in March of 2009. … Bond prices rose. Investors have been flocking to the relative safety of government bonds and have at times dumped riskier assets like stocks. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 3.21 percent from 3.24 percent late Friday. … Gold up $18.60 to $1,194.70 an ounce, and crude oil rose 56 cents to $70.60 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.