Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks retreated, adding to the market's worst one-day loss in 21 years, after Citigroup Inc. said delinquencies are increasing and reports on manufacturing spurred concern the economic slump is worsening.
Citigroup tumbled 4.3 percent after saying loss rates on credit cards and mortgages may climb to records. American Express Co., the largest U.S. card network by purchases, slid 8 percent. Masco Corp., the maker of home-improvement products, dropped 3.3 percent as industrial production fell the most in 34 years and manufacturing in Philadelphia slumped to the lowest level in almost two decades.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index declined 15.65 points, or 1.7 percent, to 892.19 at 10:28 a.m. in New York, below its lowest close since April 2003. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 124.65, or 1.5 percent, to 8,453.26. The Nasdaq Composite Index slipped 13.37 to 1,614.96. Four stocks dropped for every three that rose on the New York Stock Exchange.
The retreat over the past three days erased all of the 12 percent gain in the S&P 500 on Oct. 13, when the market rallied the most since the 1930s on speculation the government's plan to shore up banks will ease the credit crisis. Efforts to calm financial markets probably won't result in an immediate economic rebound, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke told the Economic Club of New York yesterday.
The S&P 500 has tumbled 37 percent in 2008 as losses and writedowns from mortgage-related investments at financial firms worldwide topped $646 billion. The measure has retreated 24 percent since Sept. 26.
To contact the reporter on this story: Eric Martin in New York at [email protected].
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