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Wall Street down amid financial concerns

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-06-22 10:03

Wall Street ended sharply lower Friday on concerns about the rebounding oil prices and the financial sector.

Word of potential unease in the Middle East sent the crude futures rising $2.69 to settle at $134.62 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after China's fuel price hike sent oil down by about $5 Thursday.

Anxiety over the financial sector overshadowed stocks. Late Thursday, Moody's Investors Service after Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings downgraded on MBIA and Ambac, the two biggest bond insurers, from "AAA" amid ongoing concerns about their financial health.

Moreover, Merrill Lynch reportedly slashed its earnings estimates for regional banks Friday. And Washington Mutual Inc announced it was cutting 1,200 jobs nationwide.

Meanwhile, Friday sees "Quadruple-witching expiration" that the simultaneous expiration of four types of options contracts, which often leads to heavy trading near the start and end of the session and probably accounts for the steepness of Friday's stock decline.

The Dow Jones fell 220.40 to 11,842.69. Broader indexes also moved lower. The Standard & Poor's 500 index dipped 24.90 to 1,317.93; and the Nasdaq fell 55.97 to 2,406.09.