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World market indices drop

31 March 2009 07:37 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Vahab Rzayev - APA-Economics. Wall Street’s March rally is on hold after the White House rejected turnaround plans from General Motors Corp. and Chrysler and gave investors an economic reality check.
Major indexes fell about 3 percent Monday, including the Dow Jones industrial average, which lost about 254 points but finished well off its lows. Financial stocks weighed heavily on the market amid worries that banks will need fresh injections of capital.
The Dow tumbled 254.16, or 3.3 percent, to 7,522.02. It was down as much as 339 points, so the market’s ability to pull above its lows on light trading volume could signal that investors aren’t ready to give up on the rally.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 28.41, or 3.5 percent, to 787.53, while the Nasdaq composite index fell 43.40, or 2.8 percent, to 1,501.80.
Despite the two-day retreat, the Dow is still up 975 points, or 14.9 percent, from its low of 6,547.05 on March 9, when it ended at its worst level since April 1997. The S&P 500 index is still up 16.4 percent from its low.
ank of America dropped $1.31, or 17.9 percent, to $6.03. Citigroup Inc. shed 31 cents, or 11.8 percent, to $2.31.
GM plunged 92 cents, or 25.4 percent, to $2.70. Chrysler is not publicly traded.
Bond prices mostly rose as stocks fell. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 2.72 percent from 2.76 percent late Friday. The yield on the three-month T-bill was at 0.18 percent, up from 0.12 percent Friday.
Crude oil tumbled $3.97, or 7.6 percent, to settle at $47.99 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The dollar was higher against other major currencies. Gold prices slipped.
Overseas, Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 3.1 percent, Germany’s DAX index fell 5 percent, and France’s CAC-40 fell 4.3 percent. Japan’s Nikkei stock average fell 4.53 percent.