NEW YORK (AP) — Worries about the soundness of a European bank pushed U.S. stocks lower Thursday and sent global investors hunting for less risky assets.

KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average was down 104 points, or 0.6 percent, to 16,880 as of noon Eastern. Earlier the blue-chip index had tumbled as much as 180 points on worrisome news out of Europe about accounting irregularities at a company connected to a major Portuguese bank.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 11 points, or 0.6 percent, to 1,961 and the Nasdaq composite fell 33 points, or 0.7 percent, to 4,386. Eight out of the S&P 500's 10 sectors were down, with only telecoms and utilities moving higher. Telecoms and utility stocks are typical places investors go to when looking for safety.

PORTUGAL WORRIES: Worries emerged overnight about the financial stability of a Portuguese bank. Espirito Santo Financial Group was forced to suspend trading in its shares Thursday due to accounting irregularities at Espirito Santo International, its largest shareholder. Espirito Santo Financial Group is, in turn, the largest shareholder in Banco Espirito Santo, Portugal's largest bank. The bank's share price fell sharply and is an unwelcome relapse for investors. Portugal just concluded its three-year international bailout program in May.

Portugal needed a 78 billion euro rescue in 2011, one of several nations that required a bailout during the eurozone's debt crisis. The debt crisis in Europe was largely responsible for the U.S. stock market's last correction, where the market falls 10 percent or more. Investors had worried the crisis could spread to the U.S. economy, which at the time was just starting to recover from the financial crisis.

"Today's news did reignite some of those contagion fears," said Ryan Larson, head of equity trading for RBC Global Asset Management.

PRICED FOR PERFECTION: The Dow closed above 17,000 for the first time just a week ago. With stocks trading near those all-time highs, investors argue that even a small hiccup in the global economy is going to upset the market.

"When you're priced to perfection, anything less than perfection is going to disappoint," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank in Chicago.

EUROPE: Major stock indexes tumbled in Germany and France. Both the DAX in Frankfurt and the CAC-40 in Paris slumped 1.5 percent. Spain's IBEX lost 2 percent and the Euro Stoxx 50 index, the European equivalent of the Dow, dropped 1.6 percent.

FLIGHT TO SAFETY: Investors retreated into their traditional havens in times of market turmoil: U.S. government bonds and gold. The yield on the U.S. 10-year note dropped to 2.51 percent from 2.55 percent late Wednesday. Gold rose $17.30, or 1.3 percent, to $1,341.50 an ounce.

JOBS: In a bit of good news in the U.S., applications for unemployment benefits sank last week. The Labor Department said weekly applications for unemployment benefits dropped to 304,000. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, dipped 3,500 to 311,500, the second-lowest reading since August 2007.