Wall Street opens lower on euro zone debt fears

US stocks indexes opened lower on Monday as fears of a credit rating downgrade of French banks and the lack of a solution to Greece's debt problem heightened concerns about the euro zone's debt crisis.

Concerns that the credit crisis in Europe may threaten to spill over into US banks have been pressuring Wall Street for several months, sending shares of major banks to their historical lows in recent weeks.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 116.97 points, or 1.06 per cent, at 10,875.16. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 11.59 points, or 1.00 per cent, at 1,142.64. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 21.14 points, or 0.86 per cent, at 2,446.85.