Dow plunges 1,175 points as stocks fall, wiping out all of this year's gains - latimes

The Dow Jones industrial average plunged a record 1,175 points, or 4.6%, on Monday as a sell-off in the stock market gained momentum less than two weeks after the market set record highs.

The percentage drop in the Dow, the famed average of 30-blue chip stocks, was well below its record single-day drop of 22.6% set Oct. 19, 1987, because stock prices have soared in the decades since then.

There was no discounting the damage Friday and again Monday. The Dow has now tumbled 8.5% since reaching a record high Jan. 26, wiping out its gains so far this year.

Although Wall Street is increasingly concerned about rising interest rates, there was no major news Monday that sparked the latest drop and, early in the session, the market tried to rally from its big setback Friday, when the Dow tumbled 666 points, or 2.5%.

But when the rally fizzled, investor confidence in stock prices quickly turned sour again. And with the market still sitting on major gains for the last 12 months, investors effectively threw in the towel for at least one day and resumed heavy selling to cash in their profits. The Dow at one point was down nearly 1,600 points.

The Dow lost 1,175.21 points to 24,345.75, easily breaking its previous record point decline of 777.68 points set Sept. 29, 2008, during the nation's financial crisis, which at that time amounted to a 6.98% decline.

The percentage drop this time was smaller because stocks have been in a bull market during the nine years since then.

Last year alone, the Dow Jones industrials soared 25.1% and the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 19.4%; The S&P 500 jumped an additional 7.5% just last month. The Dow, S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index all set record highs Jan. 26. - Read More

Dow plunges 1,175 points as stocks fall, wiping out all of this year's gains

Dow's 666-point plunge looks bad, but the economy's fundamentals are still strong