US stocks skid downwards

US stocks skidded at midday yesterday as a downgrade of General Motors, accounting questions at Bristol-Myers Squibb and an increase in new jobless claims trumped the improved guidance out of Wal-Mart Stores and Eastman Kodak.

Around 12.15pm ET, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 182.48, or more than 2%, to 8,631.02. The Nasdaq composite fell 18.83 to 1,327.18. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index dipped 17.21 to 903.26.

The indexes fluctuated wildly in the initial two hours of trading, venturing well into both positive and negative territory. ”We are experiencing these extreme levels of fear, with investors saying that they are not interested in hearing any positives,” said Ram Kolluri, chief investment officer at GlobalValue Investors.

In other economic news, the producer price index, a measure of wholesale inflation, rose 0.1% in June after falling 0.4% in May, the Commerce Department said. Market breadth was negative. On NY Stock Exchange, decliners beat advancers by more than 3-to-1 as 871m shares traded. On the Nasdaq, losers beat winners by nearly 3-to-1 as 1.04bn shares traded.