Dow, Nasdaq, S&P suffer painful losses

0 Comments | USA TODAY, June, 2008 | by Matt Krantz

Oil prices surged again Wednesday, rattling investors and prompting them to push stocks down to their lowest levels since April.

Worried higher inflation will crimp consumers and businesses, investors knocked the Dow Jones industrial average down 205.99 points, or 1.7%, to 12,083.77. The Dow is now down 8.9% this year.

Hammered by a vicious downdraft in shares of home builders and companies in the aluminum and photo products industries, the Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 22.95 points, or 1.7%, to 1335.49. It is down 9.0% this year.

And tech stocks also had a bad day. The Nasdaq composite index declined 54.93 points, or 2.2%, to 2394.01. The Nasdaq is down 9.7% in 2008.

Oil is getting too pricey for investors to look past anymore. The...