Comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke suggesting that the global economic crisis will extend well into next year sent the markets into a tailspin with the Dow skidding 508 points to 9447. Nasdaq plummeted 108 points to 1755.
On the upside
Bargain hunters lifted shares of Pilgrims Pride (NYSE: PPC), which had been falling after the nation's largest chicken producer warned of significant fourth quarter losses.
On the downside
Investors sold off shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) over concerns that Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Morgan Stanley may fail to sign a financing deal.
Stifel Nicolaus analyst David Fick warned that General Growth Properties (Nasdaq: GGP) may have over leveraged its acquisitions and be unable to refinance it debt maturities.
General Motors (NYSE: GM) announced that it may raise capital by mortgaging its Detroit headquarters.
Concerns that NetApp's (Nasdaq: NTAP) sales are slowing sent shares of the data and storage solutions provider tumbling.
Shares of United Airlines parent UAL (Nasdaq: UAUA) and American Airlines parent AMR (NYSE: AMR) tumbled after September traffic and capacity data showed sharp declines from last year.
In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 7 to 1 on the NYSE and by more than 4 to 1 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks slumped 37 points to 559.
