Stocks fell Wednesday as weak economic news, high commodity prices, and concerns about investment-bank profits worried investors. Stocks fell at the session's opening on a weak U.S. factory orders report, and the sell-off gained momentum later in the morning after the release of the February new-home sales report and a spike in oil prices. Orders for durable goods fell 1.7 percent in February, in contrast to forecasts for a 0.8 percent increase, the government said. A second report showed new-home sales fell to a 13-year low in February, though the decline was smaller than economists had expected. The two reports added to concerns that the economy is either in recession or moving toward one. Light sweet crude oil for May delivery jumped $4.68 to $105.90 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. COMEX gold for April delivery rose $14.20 to $949.20 an ounce. The U.S. dollar fell versus the euro and the yen. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 109.74, or 0.9 percent, to 12,422.86. Citigroup shares fell 5.5 percent in active trading after the bank said it agreed to pay nearly $1.7 billion to creditors of bankrupt energy trader Enron. Shares of Exxon Mobil were higher due to the spike in oil prices. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 11.86, or 0.9 percent, to 1,341.13. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index fell 16.69, or 0.7 percent, to 2,324.36. The New York Stock Exchange composite index fell 54.68 to 8,881.55. The American Stock Exchange composite index fell 3.66 to 2,219.75. And the Russell 2000 index fell 3.16 to 702.11.
