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US market indices close low

02 March 2009 07:47 (UTC +04:00)

BakÄ±. Vahab Rzayev - APA-Economics. The Dow, at its lowest close since May 1, 1997, is now down 50.1 percent from its record high of 14,164.53 reached in October 2007. It came within 34 points of 7,000, a level it hasn’t fallen below since October 1997, AP reported.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index breached its Nov. 21 trading low of 741.02, which came during the height of the credit crisis. Friday’s finish was the lowest for the index since Dec. 18, 1996.
The Dow’s 11.7 percent loss in February was its worst since 1933, when it fell 15.6 percent, and its sixth straight monthly drop. The half-year slide totals 38.8 percent, the worst since 1932, when it fell 45 percent.
The S&P 500 index fell 11 percent for the month. It was the second-worst February for the index, topped only by an 18.4 percent slide in 1933. It was the index’s fifth monthly drop in six months; it managed a slender gain of 0.8 percent in December.
The Dow fell 119.15, or 1.7 percent, to 7,062.93. The S&P 500 index fell 17.74, or 2.4 percent, to 735.09, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 13.63, or 1 percent, to 1,377.84.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 3.93, or 1 percent, to 389.02.
Two stocks fell for every one that advanced on the New York Stock Exchange. Consolidated volume came to a heavy 8.44 billion shares, up from Thursday’s 6.48 billion.
The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices fell.
Light, sweet crude fell 46 cents to settle at $44.76 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Britain’s FTSE 100 tumbled 2.2 percent, Germany’s DAX index fell 2.5 percent, and France’s CAC-40 fell 1.5 percent. Earlier, Japan’s Nikkei stock average rose 1.5 percent.