US stocks plunge further as oil touches new record

Surging oil prices pulled stocks sharply lower for a third straight session today, with bland earnings at General Electric Co. and weak consumer data further dampening the economic outlook. The Dow Jones industrial average shed 396 points in the past three days.

“I don’t think you’re going to bring out a lot of buyers in the market after a week like this,” Jay Suskind, head trader at Ryan Beck & Co., said of escalating political turmoil in the Middle East, Iran and North Korea. ”Uncertainty over the world situation is just too much for the market to have a solid up day.”