GM shares shrivel, and Dow Jones slumps, too
Reporting from New York — A fall in crude oil below $60 a barrel and a worsening outlook for corporate profits kept the pressure on stock prices for a second straight day today.
Shares of beleaguered General Motors Corp. shriveled 17% to their lowest level since 1942 on expectations that the carmaker will get a government bailout that would dilute the ownership stakes of existing shareholders. Starbucks Corp. shares were off 2.7% after the coffee retailer revealed a larger-than-expected drop in same-store sales.
The Dow Jones industrial average declined 263.96 points, or 3%, to 8,606.58. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was off 3.2% and the Nasdaq composite index shriveled 2.9%.
The S&P financial-stock index skidded 3.7% to a new low this morning, undercutting the trough it set on Oct. 27. Only seven of the 84 stocks in the index registered gains.
Genworth Financial lost half its value. CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. shrank 30% after the commercial property broker dropped plans to raise money in a private offering.
Oil prices sank under $60 -- recently falling $3.19 to $59.19 a barrel -- amid further signs of global economic weakness.
Hamilton is a Times staff writer.
walter.hamilton@latimes.com
