US stocks slump to six-year low after grim jobless data

US stocks closed at six-year lows Thursday after data showed five million people were collecting unemployment benefits, a record high number that underlined the growing depths of the recession. Skip related content
The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 89.68 points (1.19 percent) to end at 7,465.95, its lowest closing level since October 9, 2002.
The tech-dominated Nasdaq dropped 25.15 points (1.71 percent) to 1,442.82 and the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index shed 9.48 points (1.20 percent) to 778.94.
Markets fell on continued economic concerns, with financial stocks leading the decline, as investors remained jittery about the sustainability of asset valuations on their books, analysts at Charles Schwab & Co said.
"Wall Street is having trouble shaking off the gloom," said Wachovia Securities chief market strategist Al Goldman.
Shares were unable to maintain early gains as sellers entered the action and pushed the Dow index below its November lows posted Tuesday.

The market was stung by a series of data released Thursday underscoring deepening US recession.
The gloomiest report showed continuing claims for unemployment benefits rising by 170,000 to 4.987 million for the week ending February 7, another all-time high, according to the Labor Department.
It also said that although initial claims for government unemployment benefits were unchanged at 627,000 for the week ending February 14, the much watched four-week moving average had increased in each of the last four weeks.
"Continuing claims are at a record high. They underscore the difficulty in finding a new job at this juncture and make it apparent for many people why they should be saving more money if possible," said Patrick O'Hare of Briefing.com.
"The increased propensity to save bodes well for consumer balance sheets, but it will be a drain on GDP since increased savings means less spending by the consumer," he said.
Bank stocks faced the biggest rout. Citigroup fell by 2.51 percent to 13.75 dollars, Bank of America by 14 percent to 3.93 dollars, JPMorgan Chase by 4.23 percent to 20.60 dollars and Wells Fargo by 7.97 percent to 12.01 dollars.
General Electric, which reported last month a 44 percent lower fourth-quarter profit, dropped 4.64 percent to 10.06 dollars.
As oil prices recovered Thursday, energy stocks gained. ExxonMobil added 0.31 percent to 72.16 dollars and Chevron rose 0.85 percent to 66.68 dollars.
Sprint Nextel jumped 19.93 percent to 3.25 dollars after its quarterly loss emerged lower than anticipated while drugstore chain CVS Caremark was also up 6.37 percent to 28.71 dollars on better earnings.
Bonds were down. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond rose to 2.857 percent from 2.728 percent on Wednesday while that on the 30-year bond rose to 3.688 percent from 3.525 percent. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.

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