Another Down Day for Dow Jones

NEW YORK (AP) - Wall Street has had yet another dismal day, extending its heavy losses as investors' worries about the financial sector wiped out early enthusiasm over the Federal Reserve's efforts to inject confidence into the credit markets. Trading remained fractious and grew more turbulent in the last hour, with the Dow Jones industrial average losing more than 500 points and all the major indexes falling more than 5 percent.

The Dow is down 508, or 5.11 percent, at the 9,447 level, after falling nearly 370 Monday. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index is down 5.73 percent and the Nasdaq composite index is down 5.80 percent.

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke today offered a bleak assessment of the impact of the current financial crisis.

In a speech to the National Association of Business Economics, Bernanke says "the outlook for economic growth has worsened." He says the financial turmoil is adding to how long we will see a period of a weakened economy and an increased "risk to economic growth."

While saying the inflation numbers are "very ugly right now," Bernanke expects them to moderate over the next several months.

He also admits that the Federal Reserve will "need to consider" whether it should change its stance about holding credit rates steady.