US stocks decline

US stocks plummeted for a seventh straight session on Thursday as investors bet recent moves by authorities world-wide to thaw frozen credit markets would not be enough to avert a global recession. An avalanche of selling at the close left the Dow below 8,600 for the first time since May 2003.
The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 each also fell to levels not seen in more than five years. Bank and insurance stocks got hammered again, as the previous day's co-ordinated global interest-rate cuts and myriad other official actions to unfreeze money markets did little to boost confidence in the financial sector.
Some traders said the lifting of the ban on bets that financial stocks will drop may have contributed to the sell-off. Credit markets remained clogged. The interbank cost of borrowing dollars for any period beyond overnight rocketed - three month dollar Libor hit its highest this year.
Shares of General Motors tumbled 31.1 percent to its lowest level since 1950 as concerns mounted that an industry decline that started in the United States was spreading and a leading forecaster warned global auto demand could "collapse" in 2009. At the close, GM was at $4.76. Exxon Mobil and Chevron led the Dow lower as the price of oil dropped below $87 a barrel on concerns a global slowdown would slam demand for energy.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 678.91 points, or 7.33 percent, to 8,579.19, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index plummeted 75.02 points, or 7.62 percent, to 909.92. The Nasdaq Composite Index sank 95.21 points, or 5.47 percent, to 1,645.12.
The steep declines came on the anniversary of the Dow's all-time closing high above 14,000. Thursday's steep sell-off capped the Dow and the S&P's biggest seven-day decline since the October 1987 market crash, and the Nasdaq's worst seven-day decline since December 2000.
The Dow average has lost 2,271.47 points in the last seven trading days - the worst ever in such a period. Since its record closing high a year ago today, the Dow has tumbled 5,585.34 points - or almost 40 percent. Energy companies Exxon Mobil and Chevron were the top drags on the Dow, falling 11.7 percent to $68.00 and 12.5 percent to $64.00, respectively, as the price of oil fell more than $2 a barrel.
Morgan Stanley plunged 25.9 percent to $12.45 on concern about the status of a planned $9 billion investment by Japan's top bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. But the bank shot down speculation about the deal and some traders blamed the steep drop on short-sellers after the end of a temporary ban of shorting in financial stocks.
The market had risen early in the session, after tech bellwether IBM briefly raised hopes for the outlook for other technology companies. IBM ended the session lower, however, down 1.7 percent at $89, even after reporting solid results late on Wednesday.
Trading was active on the New York Stock Exchange, with about 2.04 billion shares changing hands, above last year's estimated daily average of roughly 1.90 billion, while on Nasdaq, about 2.95 billion shares traded, above last year's daily average of 2.17 billion. Declining stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 12 to 1 and on the Nasdaq, by about 6 to 1.