MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Another black Monday for the stock markets calendar

Wall Street suffered one of its worst days Monday, slicing 680 points off the Dow Jones industrial average as fears of a recession, or even worse, were confirmed by the latest data. Not only did stocks end their last week's five-day winning streak, they erased more than half the gains and the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index one of the broadest market gauges, lost nearly 9%.

The selling was broad and deep. All 30 of the stocks in the Dow Jones industrial average finished lower. On the New York Stock Exchange, more than 7 stocks fell for every one that rose. The Dow lost 679.95 points (7.7%) to close at about 8,149. There have only been three days in market history with bigger point losses for the Dow - the Monday after the Sept. 11 attacks, and Sept. 29 and Oct. 15 of this year. Financial stocks tumbled as investors grappled with doubts about the ultimate success of the government's efforts to prop up the banking sector. Citigroup tumbled 22%, while Morgan Stanley stock fell 23% and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. fell 17%. Wall Street is also awaiting some sort of resolution for automakers, who return to Washington this week in search of 25 billion USD in government support. General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC are scheduled to hand Congress their plans for remaking themselves with government money. The price of oil fell sharply after OPEC decided not to cut production over the weekend and as investors bet slowing economic activity would hurt demand. Light, sweet crude dropped 5.15 to 49.28 USD a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 1.35%; Britain's FTSE 100 was down 5.19%; Germany's DAX index was down 5.88% and France's CAC-40 fell 5.59%. In Latinamerica Brazil Bovespa index plunged 5%; Argentina's Merval 7%, Chile's IPSA, 3% and Mexico's IPA, 4.88%.