television giant Comcast agreed to buy a majority stake in NBC Universal from General Electric (GE) in a complex deal that creates a new entertainment company that would be worth $37.25 billion. The joint venture, consisting of NBC businesses and Comcast's cable networks, will ultimately give Comcast a 51 percent stake and GE a 49 percent stake. The U.S. dollar fell versus the euro and gained versus the yen. Light sweet crude oil for January delivery fell 14 cents to $76.46 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and gold for February delivery rose $5.30 to a new record high of $1,218.30 an ounce. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 86.53, or 0.8 percent, to 10,366.15. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 9.32, or 0.8 percent, to 1,099.92. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index fell 11.89, or 0.5 percent, to 2,173.14. The New York Stock Exchange composite index fell 65.37 to 7,157.05. The American Stock Exchange composite index fell 19.30 to 1,787.38. And the Russell 2000 index fell 7.31 to 588.78.
