Washington: The Dow Jones Industrial Average Monday fell below 10,000 points for the first time in four years and the S&P 500 reached a four-year low on worries about more bank bail-outs in Europe and tumbling commodity prices.

Trading halted in Russia and Brazil as stocks plunged. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Corp. fell more than 6.3 percent after the German government led a bailout of commercial-property lender Hypo Real Estate Holding AG and BNP Paribas SA bought Fortis's Belgium bank.

ConocoPhillips slid 7.3 percent as oil traded below $90 a barrel, Bloomberg financial news service reported.

The broad-based S&P 500 lost 66.28 points, or 6.03 percent, to 1,032.95 at 1455 GMT in New York, the lowest since December 2003. The blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average retreated 538.34, or 5.21 per cent, to 9,787.04. The high-tech Nasdaq index shed 116.38, or 5.98 percent, to 1,831.01.

Stocks only briefly rose after the Federal Reserve doubled its emergency auctions of loans to commercial banks to as much as $900 billion.

The central bank also will begin paying interest on bank deposits under authority it gained from financial-rescue legislation enacted last week.

Credit eased somewhat after the $700-billion government bail-out for the US finance system became law Friday. The three- month London interbank offered rate, or Libor, dropped to 4.29 percent from 4.33 percent Friday.

 

Source : IANS