2:40PM EST: Stocks sank, extending the worst U.S. slump since the bear market in 2008, while Treasuries gained and gold reached a record after Standard & Poor’s cut the nation’s credit rating. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost as much as 515 points, led by a 20 percent slide in Bank of America Corp.
The S&P 500 lost 5.4 percent to 1,134.25 at 2:20 p.m. in New York, its lowest level since September. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index slid 4.1 percent, the most in more than two years, to extend a drop from its 2011 high to 21 percent. Treasuries, benchmarks of the nation’s $34 trillion debt market that is more than twice the value of American equities, rallied. The 10-year note yield fell 21 basis points to 2.36 percent and the two-year rate reached a record low. The S&P GSCI commodities index lost 3 percent as oil plunged to an eight-month low.
11:30AM EST: U.S. stocks fell sharply and gold surged in volatile trading Monday morning, as investors fled from risky assets in the first activity since Standard & Poor’s downgraded the federal government’s credit rating late Friday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 331 points, or 2.9%, to 11113 in midmorning action, hitting session lows after S&P followed up its weekend government downgrade with similar actions on the debt of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two troubled mortgage-finance agencies.
Investors’ flight from risk was clearly visible in the first trading since Standard & Poor downgraded the U.S. credit rating late Friday.
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