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Summary US stocks plunged as traders worry about recession at home and deep woes in Europe's banking system.
The US stocks plunge as traders worry about potential recession at home and deep woes in Europes banking system. French bank stocks are crushed. Gold briefly tops $1,800 an ounce. Apples market cap beats Exxons.An awful wave of selling hit stocks today for the second time in three days, wiping out all of Tuesdays huge bounce-back rally and sending stocks closer to bear-market territory.The Dow Jones industrials ($INDU) finished off 520 points, wiping out all of Tuesdays 430-point rally. Gold (-GC) for December delivery briefly hit $1,801 an ounce, the first time the metal has crossed $1,800. The 10-year Treasury yield briefly fell to as low as 2.09%.The sell-off was set off by near-panic selling of European stocks, especially French bank stocks, as well as continuing fears about the health of the domestic economy. One irony of the sell-off was that Apple (AAPL), which fell 2.8% to $363.69, ended the day with a larger market capitalization than that of Exxon Mobil (XOM), which was off 4.4% to $68.03. Apples market cap was $337.2 billion; Exxons was $330.6 billion. The Dow closed down 520 points, or 4.6% to 10,720. The Standard & Poors 500 Index ($INX) fell 52 points, or 4.4%, to 1,121, and the Nasdaq Composite Index ($COMPX) plunged 101 points, or 4.1%, to 2,381.
