Wall Street plunged anew today, hurtling the Dow Jones industrial average down more than 280 points after comments from a Bear Stearns executive reinvigorated the market’s fears of a widening credit crunch.

US stocks retreated but managed a partial late-day recovery today as investors reacted uneasily to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's comments on the economy and news that two Bear Stearns Cos. hedge funds were essentially worthless.

Wall Street gave up a big advance and turned lower today as investors suffered a renewed case of the jitters ahead of the Federal Reserve’s meeting on interest rates later this week.