DOW PLUNGES BELOW 8000
U.S. Stocks Slide to Five-Year Lows as Banks, Carmakers Tumble
-1628 Since the election
Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks sank and benchmark indexes slid to their lowest levels since 2003 on growing concern over the health of the financial system and survival of the nation's car industry.
Citigroup Inc. slid 23 percent to $6.40, a 13-year low, on a plan to buy $17.4 billion of troubled investment-fund assets. General Motors Corp. tumbled 9.7 percent to its lowest price since the 1940s, while Ford Motor Co. lost 25 percent. Fourteen companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 20 percent or more as government data signaled the recession is deepening.
``Hideous day,'' said Bill Stone, who oversees $56 billion a chief investment strategist at PNC Wealth Management in Philadelphia. ``It's hard to put a basement on this thing.''
The S&P 500 slipped 6.1 percent to 806.58, extending its 2008 retreat to 45 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 427.47 points, or 5.1 percent, to 7,997.28. The Nasdaq Composite Index decreased 6.5 percent to 1,386.42. Twenty-eight stocks fell for each that rose on the New York Stock Exchange.
The retreat in the U.S. followed declines in Europe and Asia as concern mounted the economic slowdown will cut profits at financial firms and commodity producers. Federal Reserve policy makers last month predicted the U.S. economy will contract through the middle of 2009, with some prepared to cut interest rates further in response, according to a record of their meeting released today.
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