Jan 20: Stocks Dive on Fresh Bank Worries
Associated Press
Transcript
preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. The dawn of the Obama presidency was not enough to shake Wall Street from its lows. Financial stocks, many of them falling by double digits, led a huge drop on Wall Street that left the major averages down more than 4%. And after hearing the new president's inaugural address, investors went back to unloading stocks. some traders were hoping to have heard something in in the inaugural address that would have indicated more of a specific action toward stabilizing the economy and trying to rescue the banks which they did not hear and I think as a result helped to cascade prices lower. The collapse in bank stocks was swift Tuesday. State Street Corporation plunged 59%, Croup down 20% and Bank of America down 29%. Royal Bank of Scotland was down 69% in New York trading. Certainly, we had negative information coming out of Asia regarding the banks. Uh getting this news about the Royal Bank of Scotland combined with worries here, I think just continue to push share prices lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 332 points to 7949, its lowest close since November 20th, its biggest drop since December 1st. The S&P 500 was down 45 points to 805. The Nasdaq shed 88 points to finish at 1441. Investors are expecting Washington will be a central part of the economic recovery effort, but the first hours of Obama's term did little to ease their concerns. Mark Hamrich, the Associated Press.