U.S. stocks sink as investors crave for details on bad assets plan

Special Report:Global Financial Crisis

NEW YORK, Feb. 10 (Chinese media) -- U.S. stocks plunged on

Tuesday with all major indexes dropping more than 4 percent as investors were

disappointed that the new Financial Stability Plan did not offer more details on

buying toxic assets.

Dow Jones Index shed more than 380 points, led by

plunging financial shares.

FINANCIAL STABILITY

PLAN

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner announced a

comprehensive Financial Stability Plan Tuesday morning, unveiling a new bailout

package that could top 1.5 trillion U.S. dollars to restore the U.S. ailing

financial system.

According to the plan, a new Public-Private

Investment Fund will be created to provide government capital and financing to

leverage private capital to buy up the "toxic assets" that are dragging down

lending.

However, Geithner gave no details on how the new

joint entity would price the toxic assets.

Financials suffered a severe sell-off as the

uncertainty weighed on the market. Bank of America and Citigroup, which are

mostly troubled with bad assets, tumbled 19.3 percent and 15.19 percent

respectively.

Investors mainly shrugged off the news that the U.S.

Senate approved a 838-billion-dollar economic stimulus package on Tuesday. The

bill still needs to be compromised with the Congressional version of 819 billion

dollars which was passed earlier this month.

MORE

LAY-OFFS

More gloomy corporate news also helped to send the

indexes lower.

General Motors Corp. decided to cut 10,000 salaried

jobs in 2009 as part of a restructuring plan. The Detroit-based automaker said

it will reduce its total number of white-collar workers by 14percent to 63,000.

About 3,400, or 12 percent, of GM's 29,500 salaried U.S. jobs will be

eliminated.

The world's largest chain retailer Wal-Mart Stores

Inc. announced Tuesday that it will cut 700 to 800 jobs at its northwestern

Arkansas headquarters as it builds fewer new stores this year and makes other

operational changes.

Boeing Co. lowered its reported fourth-quarter and

fiscal 2008 earnings per share results late on Monday. The company reported a

surprise fourth-quarter loss and announced plans to cut 10,000 jobs last month.

Swiss bank UBS AG said it would cut another 2,000

jobs after posting a larger-than-expected loss in the fourth quarter.

FALLING

INVENTORIES

The U.S. Commerce Department reported Tuesday that

U.S. wholesale inventories fell 1.4 percent in December, twice as much as

forecast, as businesses faced slumping sales. It is the fourth straight monthly

decline, the longest such stretch in almost seven years. Meanwhile, sales fell

3.6 percent after a 7.3 percent decline.

The report also showed that wholesalers had enough

goods in stock to last 1.27 months at the current sales pace, the highest level

since 2002.

The U.S. economy shrank at 3.8 percent in the fourth

quarter, the worst since 1982. The most severe economic recession in decades has

sent the demand in the United States and worldwide plunging.

In a Commerce Department report released earlier this

month, factory inventories fell 1.4 percent in January. Retail stockpiles data

is scheduled to be released on the coming Thursday.

The Dow Jones fell 381.99, or 4.62 percent, to

7888.88. Broader indexes also lost ground. The Standard Poor's 500 index

dropped 42.72, or 4.91 percent, to 827.17 and the Nasdaq slid 66.83, or 4.20

percent, to 1524.73.