US stocks dive down over 240 points

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NEW YORK: US stocks dived Wednesday as investors worried about the growing Japan nuclear crisis and tensions in the Arab world, as well as weak US economic data.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average posted a sharp triple-digit fall, sinking 242.12 points (2.04 percent) to finish at 11,613.30.

The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite plummeted 50.51 points (1.89 percent) to 2,616.82, while the broad-market S&P 500 index shed 24.99 points (1.95 percent) at 1,256.88.

The 30-stock blue-chip Dow has lost more than 487 points over three days of trading as investors struggled to grasp the impact of Friday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake and massive tsunami in Japan, the world's third-largest economy.

After opening in negative territory, Wall Street stocks spent the day battling choppy trade amid uncertainty about the future of the global economic recovery.

"Disappointing economic data and increasing violence in Bahrain contributed to early pressure on the market," said Scott Marcouiller at Wells Fargo Advisors.

"Stocks added a second leg down after the European Union's energy commissioner said the nuclear crisis in Japan is 'out of control' and possible catastrophic events may occur in hours," he added.

Japan was racing to control a radiation leak at its quake-hit Fukushima nuclear complex and Bahrain and Libya continued to fight anti-government movements.

Sentiment was further dampened by poor US economic data showing larger-than-expected wholesale price pressures and a slump in housing construction to a near-record low.

The Labour Department said its producer price index rose 1.6 percent in February from January. The sharpest rise since June 2009 was led by surges in food and energy prices.

Construction of new homes in the United States plunged 22.5 percent in February to nearly the record low of recession-mired April 2009, according to the Commerce Department.

Among stocks in focus, General Electric, nuclear technology provider to the US and Japan, fell for the third straight day, plunging 3.37 percent to $18.95.

Nuclear plant operators were hammered: Exelon dropped 3.36 percent, Duke Energy shed 1.40 percent and Constellation lost 1.94 percent.

On the Dow, IBM led the decliners, slumping 3.79 percent to $153.00 after Sanford Bernstein lowered its recommendation to neutral.

Investors dumped insurers, pushing Hartford Financial down 3.32 percent and MetLife down 2.58 percent.

The insured losses from Japan's quake and tsunami could reach $25 billion, catastrophic risk modelling firm EQECAT said on Wednesday.

Insurer Aflac, which has extensive business in Japan, fell 0.43 percent to $50.67 after losing nine percent in three trading days.

On the upside, technology licensing firm Rambus soared 4.00 percent to $19.52 after announcing it was renewing its partnership with Japanese firm Toshiba.

Worried investors flocked to the safety of US government bonds, pushing up prices.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond fell to 3.21 percent from 3.32 percent late Tuesday, while that on the 30-year bond slid to 4.34 percent from 4.47 percent the prior day.

Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.