NEW YORK — NEW YORK - A runaway train of a sell-off turned the anniversary of the stock market peak into one of the worst days in Wall Street history yesterday, driving the Dow Jones industrials down a breathtaking 678.91 points and deepening a financial crisis that has defied all efforts to stop it.
Stocks lost more than 7 percent, $872 billion of investments evaporated, and the Dow fell to 8,579.19 yesterday. When the average crashed through the 9,000 level for the first time in five years in the final hour of trading, sellers had only begun to hit the gas pedal.
As bad as the day was, even worse was the cumulative effect of a historic run of declines: The Dow suffered a triple-digit loss for the sixth day in a row, a first, and the average dropped for the seventh day in a row, a streak not seen since 2002.
The huge sell-off on Wall Street and an escalating global equity crisis sent Asian stocks plunging this morning, with Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index tumbling more than 10 percent.
"Selling is unstoppable in New York and Tokyo," said Yutaka Miura, senior strategist at Shinko Securities Co. Ltd. in Tokyo. "Investors were gripped by fear."
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index tumbled more than 8 percent, South Korea's Kospi shed 7.4 percent, Shanghai's benchmark fell 4.1 percent, and Singapore's Straits Times index was off 7.0 percent. In Syndey, Australia's S&P/ASX200 was down 6.8 percent.
Meanwhile, the United States and Britain appear to be converging on a common solution for the financial chaos sweeping the world, one day before a crucial meeting of financial leaders begins in Washington that the White House hopes will result in a more unified response.
"Right now the market is just panicked," said David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's in New York. "Nobody wants to take on any risk. Everybody just wants to get their money and put it under the mattress."
It all took place one year to the day after the Dow closed at its record high of 14,164.53. Since that day, frozen credit, record foreclosures, cascading job losses and outright fear have seized the market and sapped 39 percent of its value.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index tumbled 7.6 percent, while the tech-dominated Nasdaq composite index fell 5.5 percent.
Oil prices also extended their recent slide. Crude futures fell during the day, and in aftermarket trading prices edged below $85, a key technical level that traders say could signal another plunge. The $85-a-barrel price is oil's lowest in a year.
