ANTIQUES SHOPS

By Sarah White and Douwe Miedema

LONDON, June 25 (Reuters) - Swiss bank Credit Suisse is to cut senior staff in its European investment banking department by up to a third, three sources familiar with the matter said, as tighter regulation and weak markets hit the sector.

"In the European investment banking business, they are going to get rid of 60 directors and managing directors," one source said on Monday.

The investment banking department affected advises on mergers and acquisitions, stock market listings, financing and debt issues, as opposed to other areas of the broader investment bank that focus on securities trading.

"It is about a third of the directors and 10-15 percent of the MDs," the first source said, referring to what are typically two most senior job ranks in the banking world.

The layoffs would happen in July, this person said. The formal redundancy process can last several months.

A second source said the cuts could end up affecting 20-30 percent of senior investment banking staff in Europe.

Credit Suisse declined to comment.

Other major investment banks have begun cutting jobs after a rough second quarter, or are still carrying out layoffs due from last year even as further needs for cost-cutting loom.

Several global banks have axed at least 50 people in Asia in the past three weeks, and more are on the way.

Credit Suisse announced a plan last year to cut about 3,500 jobs worldwide and eliminate $2.1 billion in annual costs by the end of 2013 across its three major divisions of private banking, asset management and investment banking.

It is still working through those redundancies, having made around 2,000 of the cuts by the first quarter of 2012. In all, it is shedding about 7 percent of its workforce, and the latest round comes under that target.

Like many rivals hit by rocky markets, Credit Suisse has also been cutting jobs in bond and stock trading, two sources said, though this latest round was primarily targeted at the advisory and financing business.

"It will be much less severe in the U.S. and Asia. It is principally Europe," the first person said. "It will be primarily in London, but obviously spread across the zone."

The bank, recently told to bolster its capital, is also planning to fire 126 employees in the New York area by Aug. 6. These cuts come on top of 109 people sacked there earlier this year.

This month, chief executive Brady Dougan told a newspaper he was not planning to issue new shares after the Swiss central bank called on the bank to improve its capital base.

The spat - followed by a three-notch cut in its credit rating by Moody's - led to speculation Dougan's future at the bank was in doubt, though the board has since come out to back Dougan, who is American. (Editing by Dan Lalor)

* S&P 500 turns flat for the month

* Chesapeake, rival plotted to suppress land prices; shares dip

* Indexes off: Dow 1.2 pct, S&P 1.6 pct, Nasdaq 1.82 pct

By Angela Moon

NEW YORK, June 25 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell on Monday, erasing the S&P 500 index's gains for June so far, as investors saw few reasons to buy before a European Union summit this week.

Energy and bank stocks led the decline on the S&P 500. U.S. crude futures dropped near last week's eight-month low, and news that Spain had requested help for its struggling banks pressured financial stocks. The S&P 500 energy sector index was off 2.6 percent and the financial sector index lost 2.2 percent.

"Declining oil prices and near-record low bond yields indicate slowing global growth, while elevated sovereign credit spreads and a strong U.S. dollar suggest the European crisis is nowhere near being resolved," said Mandy Xu, equity derivatives strategist at Credit Suisse in New York.

Markets continue to react to European headlines as the spiraling debt crisis in Europe could further hurt a slowing global economy. Austerity measures pushed forward by Germany have Greece mired in a long recession. Investors worry Spain could follow Greece's path as Madrid's borrowing costs remain stubbornly high.

Expectations for the two-day summit, which starts on Thursday, are low after Germany resisted pressure for common euro zone bonds or a flexible use of Europe's rescue funds at a meeting of the region's four biggest economies last week.

Among individual stocks, Chesapeake fell 8.3 percent to $17.06. Reuters reported that under the direction of Chief Executive Aubrey McClendon, the company plotted with its top competitor to suppress land prices in one of America's most promising oil and gas locations.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 146.94 points, or 1.16 percent, at 12,493.84. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 21.66 points, or 1.62 percent, at 1,313.36. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 53.48 points, or 1.85 percent, at 2,838.94.

For the month, the Dow was up 0.6 percent while the S&P 500 was flat. The Nasdaq was up 0.2 percent.

"There are technical reasons to support a July bounce, namely near-term signs of bearish exhaustion and the index's (S&P 500) attempt to establish a base above the 200-day moving average support," said Ari Wald, a technical strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman in New York.

"However, barring any explosive breakouts with surging volume, we believe this bounce should be counter to the index's secondary downtrend."

Spain formally requested euro zone rescue loans for up to 100 billion euros ($125 billion) to recapitalize its banks, saying the final amount of assistance would be set at a later stage. Some market economists say it is merely a prelude to a full bailout for Spain.

Spanish government bonds came under pressure with the 10-year bond yield 18 basis points higher at 6.53 percent, near the 7-percent mark that forced other indebted European countries to ask for bailouts.

The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday it will rule on the constitutionality of a 2010 healthcare reform law on Thursday, the last day of the high court term. The Morgan Stanley healthcare payor index dropped 1.9 percent.

A European equity benchmark fell 1.6 percent and the dollar, seen as a safe-haven when European markets are volatile, rose as worries about global growth lingered after last week's soft data on manufacturing worldwide.

New U.S. single-family home sales surged in May to a seasonally adjusted 369,000-unit annual rate, the highest since April 2010, and prices rose from a year ago amid tightening supply. But the European concerns apparently overshadowed any positive impact as a homebuilding index fell 1 percent.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc was the only gainer on the Dow. Walmart Canada said the company is opening of 47 hiring centers across Canada to support its growth plans. The stock rose 0.5 percent to $67.65.

The jailing last year of three Pakistani cricketers in London and the latest match-fixing scandal to afflict Italian football have heightened alarm that corruption is undermining top level sport.

The Olympics are something of a paradox for bookmakers - the biggest event in the sporting calendar attracts a huge global TV audience but is a sideshow for most serious gamblers.

However, the IOC is taking no chances and is working closely with British authorities to ensure that fixing does not blight the London Games.

"Experts are telling us that the Olympics is not a primary target of match fixing because they are such a huge event, under such scrutiny, that it is a big risk to try to fix competition at the Olympic Games," IOC Director General Christophe De Kepper told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"We treat this as a serious threat and we have taken measures to be ready in case anyone would want to fix competition at the Olympic Games," the Belgian added.

Games athletes and officials are forbidden from betting on the Olympics. Britain's licensed bookmakers have signed up to scrutinise activity during the July 27-August 12 Games and will channel their findings through the Gambling Commission, the industry regulator.

"We will report any suspicious betting. The IOC has set up a joint assessment unit for the duration of the Games," said Bill South, a former police officer who is head of security for William Hill, Britain's largest bookmaker.

"All the operators will have 24/7 reporting. We will suspend or void bets if necessary," he told Reuters.

British bookmakers have said that betting on the Olympics is likely to be relatively small, comparing spending over the Games as a whole with what they take on a weekend of English Premier League football. That should making wrongdoing easier to detect.

"We would offer a market on any event but the chance of all events attracting a market is unlikely," said South.

"Our trading team will make an assessment of what a potential market looks like. The smaller the market, then anything unusual is more likely to be apparent."

TECHNOLOGY BRINGS TEMPTATION

Advances in technology have created rich new opportunities for those seeking to rig results or specific episodes in a contest - "spot fixing".

More and more events can be beamed live into parts of the world like Asia where sports betting is often illegal and therefore unregulated.

Mobile technologies have also facilitated the growth of in-play betting where punters can bet on a event already under way, That is legal in itself but exposes sports players to the temptation of fixing seemingly trivial incidents.

De Kepper says that tackling fixing was more complex than the battle against doping - a scourge of international sport which the IOC has spent decades trying to combat.

"The financial impact, the means at stake behind illegal betting are far, far more important than in the criminal/doping network," he said.

De Kepper said the IOC was not against betting itself, noting that many sports were funded by lottery or levies on gaming.

However, he said that the IOC needed help to eradicate the dangers posed by unlicensed bookmakers.

"That needs the cooperation of police, that needs governments to realise that this is threatening... the credibility people can have in organised sports," he said.

"This is a public order question that many governments around the world at this stage have not realised," he added.

(Editing by Alison Wildey)