Lower Manhattan

Photo: James Estrin/The New York Times
A trader on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange today.

NYTimes:
By VIKAS BAJAJ
Published: August 9, 2007

Stocks on Wall Street today suffered their biggest one-day decline since February after the turmoil in the home-loan market caused renewed concerns about tightening credit worldwide.

The decline began at the opening bell after a French bank, BNP Paribas, suspended operations of three of its funds in the wake of turmoil in the American market for home loans. The European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve injected cash into the financial system because of tightening credit markets.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed at 13,270.68, down 387.18 points, or 2.8 percent. It was the biggest one-day decline since the Dow lost 416.02 points on Feb. 27, another day of a worldwide sell-off.

The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was off nearly 3 percent, at 1,453.10, and the Nasdaq composite index was down 2.2 percent, at 2,556.49.

After the Dow dropped 200 points within minutes of the start of trading, the session was volatile, with stocks recovering much of their early losses, then declining anew.

Prices of Treasury bonds jumped as investors fled to the safety of government paper.