Oil prices soar as stocks fall for second day

Stocks fell for a second straight day Wednesday after clashes in Libya sent oil prices to two-year highs and technology giant Hewlett-Packard said its revenue growth was slowing.

The unrest sent oil up 2.8 percent, to $98.10 a barrel, its highest price since October 2008. Libya is the world's 15th-largest exporter of crude, accounting for 2 percent of global daily output. Traders are worried that the revolt could threaten Libya's oil production and spread to other countries in the region.

Oil companies benefited from the higher prices. Chevron was the biggest gainer in the Dow Jones industrial average, rising nearly 2 percent. Energy companies in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index rose 2 percent, the only gain among its 10 company groups.

Gasoline for U.S. motorists already costs more than at any point since 2008, despite ample supplies. The national average for a gallon of unleaded was $3.19 on Wednesday - 53 cents more than a year ago. Analysts expect the average to range from $3.25 to $3.75 this spring.

Technology stocks fell after Hewlett-Packard, a bellwether for the group, gave a disappointing revenue forecast for the current fiscal year. The stock fell 9.6 percent, the most out of the 30 that make up the Dow industrials.

The Dow lost 107.01 points, or 0.9 percent, dropping to 12,105.78. The S&P 500 fell 8.04 points, or 0.6 percent, to 1307.40. The Nasdaq composite index fell 33.43, or 1.2 percent, to 2722.99.

The market's two-day stumble is only its second significant decline this year. The other came on Jan. 28, when protests in Egypt intensified.

- Associated Press

banking

At-risk figure hits an 18-year high

The number of banks at risk of failing made up nearly 12 percent of all federally insured banks in the final three months of 2010, the highest level in 18 years.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Wednesday that the number of banks on its confidential "problem" list rose to 884 in the October-December quarter, up from 860 in the previous quarter. Those are banks rated by examiners as having very low capital cushions against risk.

Twenty-two banks have failed this year. And more banks are at risk, even as the FDIC reported the industry's highest earnings as a group since the financial crisis hit three years ago.

Only a small fraction of the 7,657 federally insured banks - about 1.4 percent with assets of more than $10 billion - are driving the bulk of the earnings growth. They include Bank of America, Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo.