From The New York Times online
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS and JEREMY W. PETERS
Published: August 29, 2007
The stock market plunged late in the afternoon yesterday, registering its biggest drop in three weeks as investors were hit by fresh worries over declining consumer confidence, falling house prices, shrinking profits on Wall Street and uncertainty about the Federal Reserve.
Conference Board's Report on Consumer Confidence
Stocks were down most of the day, but the biggest drop came in the last half-hour of trading as computerized trading programs, which automatically sell when stocks fall by predetermined percentages, amplified the gloomy mood that had prevailed from the start. The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 280.28, or 2.1 percent, at 13,041.85. It was the steepest one-day decline in the Dow since Aug. 9, when it shed 387.18 points.
The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index and the Nasdaq composite were each down 2.4 percent, with all but 13 of the stocks in the S.& P. 500 down for the day.
Analysts said there appeared to be no specific catalyst for the decline. Rather, investors received a steady drumbeat of discouraging news about the intertwined woes of the housing industry, the mortgage market, hedge funds and a broader credit crunch that the Federal Reserve might have difficulty alleviating in the short run without creating longer-term problems for the economy.
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