The Dow Jones Industrial Average Monday fell below 10,000 points for the first time in four years and the S&P 500 reached a four-year low on worries about more bank bail-outs in Europe and tumbling commodity prices.

Trading halted in Russia and Brazil as stocks plunged. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Corp. fell more than 6.3 per cent after the German government led a bailout of commercial-property lender Hypo Real Estate Holding AG and BNP Paribas SA bought Fortis's Belgium bank.

ConocoPhillips slid 7.3 per cent as oil traded below 90 dollars a barrel, Bloomberg financial news service reported.

The broad-based S&P 500 lost 66.28 points, or 6.03 per cent, to 1,032.95 at 1455 GMT in New York, the lowest since December 2003. The blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average retreated 538.34, or 5.21 per cent, to 9,787.04. The high tech Nasdaq index shed 116.38, or 5.98 per cent, to 1,831.01.

Stocks only briefly rose after the Federal Reserve doubled its emergency auctions of loans to commercial banks to as much as 900 billion dollars.

The central bank also will begin paying interest on bank deposits under authority it gained from financial-rescue legislation enacted last week.

Credit eased somewhat after the 700-billion-dollar government bail-out for the US finance system became law on Friday. The three- month London interbank offered rate, or Libor, dropped to 4.29 per cent from 4.33 per cent on Friday.