The Dow suffered its worst percentage loss in more than six years Monday as the markets were slammed by an historic weekend that left Wall Street without financial giants Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch.
The momentous selloff came as insurance giant AIG lost more than half its value and crude oil futures plunged more than $5, closing below $100 a barrel for the first time since March.
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The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 504.48 points, or 4.42% to 10917.51, the Standard & Poor’s 500 lost 58.17 points, or 4.65%, to 1193.53 and the Nasdaq Composite slid 81.36 points, or 3.60%, to 2179.91. The FOX 50 dropped 39.47 points, or 4.37%, to 863.37.
The losses brought the Dow below the psychologically-important 11,000 threshold for the first time since July 16. It was the index's sixth-largest point decline ever and the biggest since the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
The markets went into a tailspin in the final minutes of the day, reflecting anxiety over AIG (AIG: 4.76, -7.38, -60.79%), Tuesday's Federal Reserve policy meeting and an upcoming earnings statement from Goldman Sachs (GS: 135.50, -18.71, -12.13%). The VIX, a measure of market volatility, jumped 23.5% to 31.7 on Monday.
“This is a very bad situation and people are justifiably concerned," said Michael James, senior equity trader at Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles. “Right now it's sell first and ask question later."
Topic: Epic Selloff: Dow Jones Plummets 504 Points!!! (Read 845 times)