Stocks Plunge as Crisis Intensifies

Gallery

Wall Street in Turmoil

Global stocks have experienced wild fluctuations this week in the wake of the U.S. government's seizure of insurance giant American International Group, the failure of Lehman Brothers, the disappearance of Merrill Lynch as an independent company and reports the U.S. government will set up a government entity to take on bad debts from financial institutions.

» LAUNCH PHOTO GALLERY

The financial sector was among the hardest hit. Bank of America closed down 21 percent, while Wachovia fell 25 percent. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the two remaining survivors of what were once Wall Street's Big Five, report quarterly earnings this week -- and closed down 12 and 14 percent respectively.

Although it was a horrible day for the market, it was no worse than Treasury and Fed officials had expected when they declined to intervene to save Lehman. Indeed, officials said they were pleased that the credit markets seemed to generally to function alright.

Another bit of good news for consumers: Oil prices fell about $5 a barrel, to close at $95.71, the first time prices have closed below $100 in months. Hurricane Ike did not do as much damage as some had feared and overall demand for fuel continues to decline, analysts said.

"One of the reasons that oil is weak is that [there is an acknowledgment that] the slowdown in the economy could affect everything, and that includes demand for oil," said Phil Flynn, oil analyst at Alaron Trading in Chicago.

Risk-adverse investors are likely to move away from U.S. assets, dragging down the value of the dollar compared with a range of foreign currencies, said Joseph Brusuelas, chief U.S. economist at California-based Merk Investments. Already, Treasury bond prices surged yesterday, meaning that yields fell. "There is a concern about the basic stability of the market going forward," he said.

Global stocks also plunged on the weekend news, and central bankers tried to calm the situation during deepening uncertainty about the resilience of the global financial system and the strength of the world economy. China's central bank announced it was cutting a key interest rate to uphold growth, and U.S. industrial production fell faster than expected in August.

Meanwhile, the sidewalk outside Lehman's headquarters in midtown Manhattan took on a carnivalesque atmosphere yesterday, as dozens of reporters clamored outside the doors, a half-dozen television trucks parked on the street, tourists grouped on the sidewalk taking photos, a few political partisans preached their platforms -- and occasionally an employee came out dragging a suitcase on wheels.

One man waved a red flag, calling for a workers' revolution and yelling, "The capitalist order is in freefall collapse!"

Staff writers Binyamin Appelbaum, David Cho, Zachary A. Goldfarb, Neil Irwin, Heather Landy, Renae Merle, and Robin Shulman contributed to this report.