Argentina's plan sparks concern

Argentina's planned seizure of $29 billion of private pension funds stoked concern the nation is headed for its second default in a decade.

President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's decision hurt markets already reeling from slumping commodity prices and slower growth. The retirement system, set up in 1994 to help bolster capital markets, owns about 5 percent of companies listed on the Buenos Aires stock exchange and 27 percent of shares available for public trading, data compiled by pension funds show.

Argentine bond yields soared above 24 percent before the announcement late on Tuesday, and the benchmark Merval stock index tumbled 11 percent. The last time the government sought to tap workers' savings to help finance debt payments was in 2001, just before it stopped servicing $95 billion of obligations.