Wall Street Follows Dow Chemical Lower

Over the weekend, Kuwait's government canceled a planned deal with Dow Chemical (DOW Quote). Kuwait said the $17.4 billion collaboration, K-Dow Petrochemicals, is too risky due to oil prices and the financial crises. Dow said it's working to salvage its proposed $15.3 billion buyout of Rohm & Haas (ROH Quote), which was to be funded in part by Kuwait's $7.5 billion purchase of Dow Chemical equity.

Both Dow and Rohm & Haas were lost ground Monday. The former gave up 19% to $15.32, while the latter shed 16.1% to $53.34.

Meanwhile, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez said Saturday that his government will seize several gold mining concessions previously granted to wealthy private operators. President Chavez said the move should offset decreasing oil prices. On Monday, the price of gold rose $4.10 to settle at $875.30 an ounce.

Count wealthy Latin Americans among the big losers to emerge from Bernard Madoff's alleged Ponzi scheme, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Some of the victims were brought in through Banco Santander (STD Quote), a Spanish bank that has admitted losing more than $3.22 billion with Madoff. The Fairfield Greenwich Group, which had a Brazilian presence, also suffered exposure through its Sentry fund, which was Madoff's single largest investor with $7.5 billion in the scheme, according to the report.

In domestic news, confidence in U.S. automakers continued to sputter on a report that billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, who earlier in the year encouraged investors by acquiring a stake in Ford (F Quote) though his Tracinda Corp., dumped his holdings in the automaker. Tracinda sold 7.3 million shares of Ford common stock in October, and has now handed off 133.5 million more shares, according to reports.