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NEW YORK-The dawn of the Obama presidency could not shake the stock market from its dejection over the rapidly deteriorating state of the banking industry.Financial stocks, many of them falling by double digit percentages, led a huge drop on Wall Street Tuesday that left the major indexes down more than 4 percent and the Dow Jones industrials down 332 points. Although traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange paused to watch the inauguration ceremony and Obama's remarks, the transition of power didn't erase investors' intensifying concerns about struggling banks and their impact on the overall economy.The market's angst, which began with multibillion losses reported last week by Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc., intensified after the Royal Bank of Scotland's forecast that its losses for 2008 could top $41.3 billion.The collapse in bank stocks was swift Tuesday: State Street Corp. plunged 59 percent, Citigroup fell 20 percent and Bank of America lost 29 percent. Royal Bank of Scotland fell 69 percent in New York trading.The shrinking value of bank stocks means the financial industry accounts for less than 10 percent of the Standard & Poor's 500 index for the first time since 1992. At the end of 2006, banks made up 22 percent of the stock market benchmark.And the market's retreat Tuesday means Wall Street has eaten through most of the advance it made from Nov. 20 through Jan. 6. The S&P 500, which had been up as much as 24 percent, is now up only 7 percent from its November low.Fears about banking eclipsed the shift in Washington. Royal Bank of Scotland's forecast for what would be the biggest loss ever for a British corporation left investors fearful that government's would have to nationalize banks to keep them from collapsing....New York Stock Exchange: http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=Ar55VmjkpYZsqLuymGWTeM_yKIkA/SIG=10pot72t4/**http%3A//www.nyse.com/
Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com/
Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com/
By Tim Paradis, AP Business Writer
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As in the days of Noah....
