Stocks tanked across the US on Thursday with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunging by more than 7% to its lowest level in five years.

While the Dow Jones fell by 679 points, the Standard and Poor Index also recorded a decline of around 7%. The sell off comes on the one-year anniversary of the closing highs of the Dow Jones and the S&P. ever since Dow closed at a high of 14, 164.53 on October 9 2007, it has lost around 39.4% or 5585 points. The S&P has marked a fall of 41.9% or 655 points since its closing high of 1565.15 last year.

Thursday’s decline came as the Standard & Poor’s rating services put the credit ratings of US auto giants General Motors and Ford under review. While the rating agency brought General Motors and its finance affiliate GM LLC under review to see if its rating should be cut, it also put Ford Motor Co under credit watch negative. However the rating agency clarified that though the companies had enough liquidity for now, the situation may change for the worse, next year.

The warnings by the ratings agency led GM shares to tank by 31% while those of Ford plunged by 22% thus further rattling investors who are already nervous about the impact of credit freeze on the economy.

Citigroup has decided to give up its claims on Wachovia thus leaving Wells Fargo free to complete its $15 billion deal to acquire the Charlotte-based bank.

The exit of Citigroup Inc from the race to buy Wachovia Corp puts an end to two weeks of financial, legal and political wrangling which saw both Citigroup and Wells Fargo heading to the court to press their claims. Wachovia had out it self up for sale after incurring heavy losses due to mortgage-related loans and was coveted by major financial institutions for its extensive banking network. While Citigroup was the first to reach an understanding on acquisition, Wachovia eventually turned to Wells Fargo because of the latter’s more generous terms.

Even though Citigroup announced on Thursday that it was ending the acquisition bid for Wachovia, the New York-based company clarified that it will continue to press for claims worth $60 billion from Wells Fargo and Wachovia for striking an agreement after Wachovia had signed an exclusivity clause with Citigroup.

The acquisition of Wachovia’s lucrative bank branch network will make Wells Fargo the largest bank in the Washington area. It will also put Wells Fargo in the league of Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase who together control around one-third of the retail and commercial banking industry in the US.

Prices of crude oil fell to the lowest level in the last one year as demand slowed down and stock markets plunged on worries that the global finance crisis would drag down major economies including the US into recession.

Crude oil for November delivery fell by 5.2% or $4.49 to $82.10 a barrel on Thursday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. This is the lowest since October 2007. Futures on Friday were at $82.83 at 10:29 a.m. Singapore time. The recent fall in crude oil futures marks a fall of nearly 44% ever since it touched the record high of $147.27 on July 11 this year.

The recent fall in oil futures came as the Dow Jones Industrial Average tanked by more than 7% on Thursday, ending below 9000 for the first time since 2003. The sharp decline in crude prices has prompted OPEC to consider cutting down output when it meets on November 18.

Along with oil, copper also traded at its lowest since March 2006 falling by as much as 9% to $4830 per metric tonne at the London Metal Exchange. This is in sharp contrast to gold prices which have seen steep inclines as investors seek a safe haven for parking their assets in the wake of crashing stocks all across the globe.

Insurance companies appear to have become the latest victim of plunging stocks, weeks after major Wall Street banks collapsed in the financial market meltdown.

In the past five days, insurance stocks have nosedived by over 30% with Prudential Financial turning out to be the biggest loser on Thursday’s blood bath at US stock markets. Prudential shares fell by $10.02 to close at $33.27 signalling a loss of 42% in the past week. Likewise, shares of Hartford Financial Services Group were down $4.75 on Thursday and closed at $20.11.

MetLife, America’s largest life insurance company had already warned investors that earnings would fall sharply in the third quarter. However the insurance company was able to raise $2 billion in stock sale on Wednesday and This appeared to have a positive impact on its stocks which was among the few winners at Dow Jones on Thursday. Shares of MetLife inched up by $1 to close at $28.

The recent trend of insurance stocks being battered at the stock markets has led to huge losses for the industry, already suffering the impact of a tightened credit market and falling investment values.

YouTube has decided to allow retailers to add buttons below videos on its site, thus making it possible for viewers to buy products featured in each video or those related to it.

With the help of buttons put below videos on YouTube, viewers will be able to connect to popular retail stores like Apple’s iTunes music store, Amazon’s online shopping site or to Electronic Arts to buy video games and other products. This e-commerce platform will enable YouTube to generate much-needed revenue for growth and expansion. However for the time being the e-commerce links are being added to its library of music videos only in the United States.

San Bruno-based YouTube is an exceedingly popular site for viewing and sharing online videos. It was founded in February 2005 and caught on the fancy of netizens for offering first-hand accounts of current events, for finding videos on viewers’ hobbies and interests besides showing the quirky and fantastic. In October 2006, YouTube was acquired by Google for $1.65 billion in stock in a deal that was criticized in some quarters for though YouTube was inordinately popular, it did not have a viable way to earn money. With the current launching of its e-commerce platform, YouTube hopes to address the issue and earn enough revenues