S&P 500 Financials Index slumped below its lowest closing level since 1997

Levkovich Cuts Forecast

Banks and real-estate companies then led the market lower as the S&P 500 Financials Index slumped below its lowest closing level since 1997

The declines that pushed the S&P 500 to an almost five-year low yesterday prompted Tobias Levkovich, chief U.S. equity strategist at Citigroup Inc., to lower his year-end forecast for the index by 23 percent to 1,200. His previous target of 1,475 had been the most bullish of nine forecasts in a Bloomberg survey.

-The Standard & Poor's 500 Index slid 35 points, or 3.3 percent, to 1,021.89 at 2:08 p.m. in New York.
-The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 305.93, or 3.1 percent, to 9,649.57 after sinking below 10,000 for the first time in four years yesterday.
- The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 3.9 percent to 1,790.52. Eight stocks fell for each that rose on the New York Stock Exchange.