国际英语新闻：Wall Street tumbles after six-week rally on financial concerns

NEW YORK, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Wall Street tumbled Monday after a six-week rally with all major indexes dropping more than 3 percent on financial concerns.

Bank of America Corp. said Monday that its first-quarter profit beat Wall Street estimates, but it also set aside 13.4 billion U.S. dollars to cover losses on souring debt.

    Citigroup Inc. dropped over 10 percent after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said the bank's credit losses are growing at a "rapid rate." Financials led stocks lower.

    Lower commodity prices weighed on commodity stocks. Crude oil for May delivery fell below 46 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, as slowing economies reduced demand for fuels.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange April 20, 2009. Wall Street tumbled Monday after a six-week rally with all major indexes dropping more than 3 percent on financial concerns

    Copper for delivery in three months and nickel also slipped. U.S. Steel Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp. declined.

    In other corporate news, Oracle Corp. said it plans to acquire Sun Microsystems Inc. for 7.4 billion dollars, or 9.50 dollars a share, after IBM Corp. abandoned its bid to buy the networking equipment maker.

    The U.S. Conference Board's index of leading economic indicators, which is designed to forecast economic activity in the next three to six months, dipped 0.3 percent last month. Analysts has expected 0.2 percent decline.

    The Dow Jones industrial average was down 289.60 points, or 3.56 percent, to 7,841.73. The Standard & Poor's 500 index tumbled 37.21 points, or 4.28 percent, to 832.39. The Nasdaq composite index fell 64.86 points, or 3.88 percent, to 1,608.21.