U.S. stocks fell the most in 14 months last week on concern Europe's leaders cannot contain the government debt crisis. A rout Thursday briefly erased more than $1 trillion in market value as the Dow fell almost 1,000 points, its biggest percentage loss since 1987, before paring losses.
Industrial and materials companies led declines in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index as all 10 industry groups fell. Alcoa, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard and American Express led the Dow lower, each tumbling at least 10 percent. All 30 Dow stocks dropped except Kraft Foods.
The S&P 500 slumped 6.4 percent to 1,110.88, wiping out its advance for this year. The Dow lost 628.18 points, or 5.7 percent, to 10,380.43. Both had the largest weekly losses since March 2009.
"We have a massive debt bubble globally and it's going to take a decade or more to get back to reasonable, sustainable levels," said George Feiger, chief executive of Contango Capital Advisors. "There's this deep need to believe that the problems are over but the old system, the old opportunities, aren't coming back, at least not for many years."
Federal regulators are reviewing Thursday's plunge to determine whether the fivefold increase in the number of American equity exchanges has left them unable to manage surges in volume. The SEC will also examine if controls weren't in place.
The Treasury will sell $26 billion in three- and six-month bills on Monday. They yielded 0.14 percent and 0.20 percent in when-issued trading. The U.S. government also plans to sell $38 billion in three-year notes Tuesday, $24 billion in 10-year Treasury notes Wednesday and $16 billion in 30-year bonds Thursday. They yielded 1.35 percent, 3.43 percent and 4.28 percent in when-issued trading.