Dow Drops 369.88 Points, Below 10000, Lowest level in 4 years, down 3.5%

October 6, 2008 Iron Mill Interactive Media politics 0

Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) — Stocks tumbled around the world, the euro fell the most against the yen since its debut and oil dropped below $90 a barrel as the yearlong credit market seizure caused bank bailouts to spread through Europe. Government bonds rallied.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 3.4 percent, falling below 10,000 for the first time since October 2004. Marathon Oil Corp. tumbled 11 percent, while Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. fell 7.1 percent. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index headed for its steepest drop in at least two decades as exchanges in Russia and Brazil were forced to halt trading after declines of more than 10 percent. Europe’s Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index had its biggest intraday decline since 1987.

The euro weakened the most against the yen since 1999 after the German government and state banks were forced to pledge $68 billion to rescue Hypo Real Estate Holding AG. Crude dropped 39 percent from its record on July 11 as the global economy slowed. Investors seeking the safety of government bonds pushed yields on two-year Treasury notes to 1.5 percent, 50 basis points below the Federal Reserve’s main interest rate.

“It’s like a fire,” said Emmanuel Soupre, a fund manager at Neuflize OBC Asset Management in Paris, which oversees the equivalent of $33 billion. “It’s easier to extinguish five minutes after the start. Now we’re about an hour into it. We have to act quickly to assure the continuity of the financial system to avoid an irreversible contamination of the entire economy.”

BHP Billiton Ltd. slid 7.8 percent and UBS AG lost 10 percent as commodities producers and banks dropped the most in the MSCI World Index.

The MSCI World lost 5.9 percent to 1,071.11 at 3:18 p.m. in London as all 10 industry groups decreased. National markets in China, Germany, France, Japan, South Korea and the U.K. fell more than 4 percent.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index sank 3.9 percent. The Fed said today it “stands ready” to foster “liquid money market conditions.”