U.S. stocks fall amid economic worries

Special Report:Global Financial Crisis　

NEW YORK, Dec. 23 (Chinese media) -- The U.S. stocks closed lower with Dow losing for a fifth consecutive session on Tuesday as a gloomy economic outlook and worrying home sales added to investors' concern about recession.

The U.S. Commerce Department reported on Tuesday that the third-quarter gross domestic product declined at an annual rate of 0.5 percent, the same as the government estimate one month ago. But investors are concerned that the readings for current and future quarters will get worse, with some projecting as much as a 6-percent drop in the October to December quarter.

Meanwhile, another report showed that U.S. November sales of new homes dropped by 2.9 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual sales pace of 407,000 units, which was the slowest sales pace since January 1991. The November new home prices fell 11.5 percent from the level one year ago.

Energy shares fell as the crude oil closed below 39 U.S. dollars a barrel after dipping to as low as 37.79 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In corporate news, the largest U.S. card maker American Greetings reported losses in the third quarter as sales declined. American Greetings fell 3.42 dollars, or 34.83 percent, to 6.4 dollars.

American Express Co. and commercial financial firm CIT Group Inc. said on Tuesday that they each received preliminary approval to obtain billions in funding from the government's 700-billion-dollar TARP fund.

The Dow Jones fell 100.28 to 8,419.49. Broader indexes also moved lower. The Standard Poor's 500 index dipped 8.47 to 863.16;and the Nasdaq dropped 10.81 to 1,521.54.