Stocks sink on financial fears; Dow drops 332 points to below 8000

NEW YORK -- The dawn of the Obama presidency could not shake the stock market from its dejection over the rapidly deteriorating state of the banking industry.

Financial stocks, many of them falling by double digit percentages, led a huge drop on Wall Street Tuesday that left the major indexes down more than 4% and the Dow Jones industrials down 332 points.

Although traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange paused to watch the inauguration ceremony and Obama's remarks, the transition of power didn't erase investors' intensifying concerns about struggling banks and their impact on the overall economy.

The market's angst, which began with multibillion losses reported last week by Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc., intensified after the Royal Bank of Scotland's forecast that its losses for 2008 could top $41.3 billion.

The collapse in bank stocks was swift Tuesday: State Street plunged 59%, Citigroup fell 20% and Bank of America lost 29%. Royal Bank of Scotland fell 69% in New York trading.

The shrinking value of bank stocks means the financial industry accounts for less than 10% of the Standard & Poor's 500 index for the first time since 1992. At the end of 2006, banks made up 22% of the stock market benchmark.

And the market's retreat Tuesday means Wall Street has eaten through most of the advance it made from Nov. 20 through Jan. 6. The S&P 500, which had been up as much as 24%, is now up only 7% from its November low.

Fears about banking eclipsed the shift in Washington. Royal Bank of Scotland's forecast for what would be the biggest loss ever for a British corporation left investors fearful that government's would have to nationalize banks to keep them from collapsing. The British government injected more money into the struggling bank Monday and announced another round of bailouts for the country's banks.

State Street and Regions Financial, a bank with branches primarily in the Southeast, both reported big earnings drops Tuesday.

Acknowledging the global economy's woes, Obama suggested Wall Street would see greater oversight: "Without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control," he said in his address outside the Capitol.