Bottom Drops Out; Dow Plummets 5.6%

Fellow blue-chip banking titan JPMorgan Chase (JPM Quote), meanwhile, is getting set to cut about 10% of its workforce, according to a report by Reuters. Shares fell 18% to $23.38.

Also on the Dow, Boeing (BA Quote) said it would lay off 800 workers in a Kansas facility thanks to delays and terminations of various projects, sending the stock down 1% to $37.11.

Bloomberg reported that industrial conglomerate and Dow stock General Electric (GE Quote) was in talks to secure investments from several Asian sovereign wealth funds. Shares slumped 11% to $12.84.

Among technology companies, Yahoo! (YHOO Quote) is still in talks to purchase Time Warner's (TWX Quote) AOL business, according to another report by Bloomberg. Yahoo! slipped 2.1% to $8.95, and Time Warner lost 13% to $7.07.

Separately, Microsoft (MSFT Quote), whose offer to merge with Yahoo! had earlier been rebuffed by the Internet company, said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it is planning to issue debt to pay for operating and general expenses. The stock shed 4.2% to $17.53.

Moving on to commodities, crude oil fell $4 to close at $49.42 a barrel, its lowest settling price in more than three years. Gold added $12.70 to settle at $748.70.

Longer-dated U.S. Treasury securities were soaring in price as investors sought safety from the troubled stock market. The 10-year was up 2-1/32, yielding 3.09%, and the 30-year was skyrocketing 5-10/32 to yield 3.63%. The dollar was strengthening vs. the euro and pound, but plummeting against the yen.