market tanked
U.S. stocks on Thursday sprinted to fresh five-year lows, with the major indexes slammed for a seventh straight session as financial shares and General Motors Corp. tanked and global credit woes spurred panic-stricken investors to flee equities.
"There are only two things that will turn this market around: One is any sign that the credit markets are thawing out, and the second is we finally find a level at which stocks have finally become too cheap," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Jefferies & Co.
One year to the day after climbing to its peak of 14,164.53, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, delayed DJIA -5.55%
sank 678.91 points, its third-largest point loss on record, to finish at 8,579.19, pushing the blue-chip index under the 9,000 level for the first time since August 2003.
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With Standard & Poor's threatening a possible downgrade , General Motors Corp. GM -2.97% was the heaviest weight on the Dow industrials. The stock fell 31.1%, making its first dip below $6 a share since 1951.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stocks-tank-into-the-close-dow-marks-3rd-largest-point-loss