UNITED States stocks fell last week, giving the Dow Jones Industrial Average a 20 percent bear-market drop since October's all-time high, as record oil threatened global growth.
Monsanto Co and Nucor Corp led raw-material producers in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index to the steepest drop since January. General Motors Corp tumbled to the lowest price since 1954 after Merrill Lynch & Co said the largest US auto maker may face bankruptcy. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc slumped to an eight-year low on speculation credit losses will force it to merge with a bigger securities firm.
The S&P 500 lost 1.2 percent to 1,262.90 for the fifth straight weekly retreat, the longest streak of declines in four years. The index sank to 1,261.52 last Wednesday, down 19.4 percent since October 9 and the lowest since July 2006. The Dow slipped 0.5 percent to 11,288.54. The MSCI World Index of 23 developed markets fell 18.4 percent from its October peak through last Thursday.
Among large companies, "the biggest losers are names with international exposure," said Mark Freeman, a Dallas-based money manager at Westwood Holdings Group, which manages US$8 billion. "The market is calling into doubt that element of support is going to be with us going forward."
US markets were closed last Friday for the Independence Day holiday.
Materials companies in the S&P 500 lost 5.8 percent, the most among 10 industries. Monsanto, the world's biggest seed producer, fell 6.3 percent to US$120.21. It closed at a record US$142.69 on June 17. Nucor, the largest US steel maker by market value, slumped 16 percent to US$62.54. The company dropped 24 percent since an all-time high in May, Bloomberg News said.
Massey Energy Co led coal firms in the S&P 500 to a 12 percent retreat that pared their 2008 gain to 27 percent. Massey Energy lost 17 percent to US$75.46 last week.
Caterpillar Inc, the world's biggest maker of earthmoving equipment, contributed most to the Dow's weekly drop, followed by Boeing Co, the second-largest commercial plane maker, and aluminum producer Alcoa Inc Before US stocks started falling on May 19, Alcoa had the top gain in the Dow for 2008. Caterpillar was No. 4.
Caterpillar slumped 4.7 percent to US$70.31, the lowest since March 10. Boeing retreated 3.7 percent to US$64.47, and Alcoa fell 7.4 percent to US$32.78.
"It gives you a sense of how much momentum money had been attracted to some of these sectors, as well as a growing realization of the slowdown in front of us," said Daniel Manion, manager of the US$1.3 billion Sentinel Common Stock Fund in Vermont.
This is the Dow's 12th bear market since 1962 and first since 2002, said Connecticut-based research firm Birinyi Associates Inc.