down 210 points last nite !!!!, page-3

Stocks suffer biggest fall since 2003
Fri Jan 20, 2006 6:54
By Jennifer Coogan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks suffered their biggest loss in nearly three years on Friday, plummeting on disappointing earnings from blue chips Citigroup Inc. and General Electric Co. and a spike in oil caused by geopolitical tensions.

The Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor's 500 stock index posted their biggest point declines since March 24, 2003, soon after the war in Iraq began. The Dow erased its gains for 2006.

Citigroup and GE joined a growing list of companies, including chip maker Intel Corp. and Internet media firm Yahoo Inc., whose quarterly results have disappointed investors.

A surge in oil prices above $68 also battered stocks. Crude climbed on concern about potential supply disruptions stemming from Iran's nuclear plans, the targeting of oil companies by militants in Nigeria and Osama bin Laden's threat of attacks against the United States.

"The market's been watching the earnings reports very closely. We got off on the wrong foot with Citibank and GE," said Evan Olsen, head of equity trading at Stephens Inc. "You've also had oil lifting higher with bin Laden acting up and Iran acting strange which is concerning going into a weekend, so people are taking profits."

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 213.32 points, or 1.96 percent, at 10,667.39. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 23.55 points, or 1.83 percent, at 1,261.49. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 54.11 points, or 2.35 percent, at 2,247.70.

Friday's decline was the biggest point loss for Nasdaq since September 2003.

The major stock indexes suffered their first weekly loss of the new year. For the week, the Dow shed 2.7 percent, the S&P lost 2.0 percent and Nasdaq ended 3 percent lower.

Before Friday's slide, the Dow was up 1.5 percent for 2006 but the blue-chip average is now down 0.5 percent for the year.

In the bond market, Treasury prices rose slightly but failed to gain major traction from the rout in stocks and soaring oil prices. The benchmark 10-year note eked out a 3/32 gain to yield 4.37 percent, down from 4.38 percent Thursday.