Stocks tumbled Thursday as Wall Street contended with a barrage of bad news: another surge in oil prices and warnings of trouble in the key financial, automotive and high-tech industries. The major indexes showed losses of more than 1 percent, including the Dow Jones industrial average, which shed more than 200 points and dropped to its lowest level of the year.
The Dow fell as low as 11,581.57, well under its 2008 trading low of 11,634.82. That sent some investors rushing for the safety of Treasury bonds _ government debt is a haven when the stock market is in turmoil.
The passel of worries investors juggled included analyst comments on General Motors Corp. A downbeat assessment sent shares of the largest U.S. automaker to their lowest level in more than 30 years, while Citigroup Inc. fell sharply after an analyst placed a "sell" rating on the stock and warned investors to expect less from the brokerage sector.
Comments from technology bellwethers Oracle Corp. and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. further soured investors' moods and made the tech sector one of the steepest decliners.
Wall Street sank a day after the Federal Reserve interrupted a series of interest rate cuts by leaving rates unchanged and warning of an increased threat of inflation. Stocks, which posted uneven gains Wednesday after the Fed's decision, also benefited during that session from a decrease in oil prices.
But oil prices rebounded Thursday, adding to Wall Street's inflation concerns. OPEC President Chakib Khelil was quoted as telling a French television station that oil could rise as high as $170 per barrel this summer before pulling back. That and a falling dollar helped send light, sweet crude up $4.03 to $138.58 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Rising oil has saddled nearly all parts of the economy with higher costs. The increased expenses have weighed on consumers who now have to reach much deeper into their wallets at the gas pump and therefore have less to spend elsewhere.
In late morning trading, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 216.91, or 1.84 percent, to 11,594.92.
Broader stock indicators also fell sharply. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 24.97, or 1.89 percent, to 1,297.00, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 59.09, or 2.46 percent, to 2,342.17.
Bond prices rose sharply. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 4.05 percent from 4.10 percent late Wednesday.
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