Dow Plummets 365 Points on Credit and Housing Woes

The Dow has lost 4.2 percent since it's record close on Oct. 9th.

Salem-News.com

(NEW YORK) - Stocks fell sharply Friday, the anniversary of 1987's Black Monday, as investors shed a variety of shares on growing worries about banks, slowing corporate profit growth, the falling dollar and record-high oil prices.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost over 365 points, or 2.7 percent. The S&P 500 index (down 39 points) and the Nasdaq composite (down 74 points) both lost about 2.5 percent.

Disappointing earnings from Caterpillar and Honeywell exacerbated concerns about weak third-quarter profits. Wachovia became the latest financial services firm to reveal how the credit and mortgage market crisis had hit its profits.

High oil prices - which at one point topped $90 a barrel - added to the days weakness, as did the dollar, which fell to a new record low against the euro and also slipped versus the yen.

The Dow has lost 4.2 percent since it's record close on Oct. 9th. The Nasdaq has lost 2.9 percent this week. This is the worst day for the Dow and S&P 500 since August.

Black Monday is the name given to Monday, October 19th, 1987, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by 508 points. The Black Monday decline was the largest one-day percentage decline in stock market history. The most popular explanation for the 1987 crash was selling by program traders.
(Information compiled by Kevin Hays)