Oil Keeps Rising, Stocks Drop AgainOil Keeps Rising, Stocks Drop Again

As oil prices keep rising, Wall Street keeps heading in the opposite direction. Spiking oil prices on Thursday triggered a sell off that brought all of the major indexes down. With oil closing at a record $44.41 a barrel, the Dow Jones industrials fell below the 10,000 level, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq closed at its lowest level of the year.

The Dow industrials fell 163.48, or 1.6%, to 9,963.03, and the S&P 500 also fell 1.6%, dropping 17.93, to 1,080.70. The Nasdaq composite posted the biggest percentage drop, falling 1.8%, or 33.43, to 1,821.63--its lowest close since last Sept. 30--while the information 100 fell 1.4%, or 3.97 points, to 275.93. The Nasdaq-100 tracking stock followed suit, falling 1.8%, or 63 cents, to $33.61, on moderate volume of 105.6 million shares.

Internet stocks were hardest hit, with Yahoo dropping nearly 4%, or $1.11, to $26.80, and eBay down 2.7%, or $2.01, to $73.79. But bellwethers in software, hardware, chips, and networking fell, too. Microsoft was down 1.9%, or 53 cents, to $27.53; Dell fell 1.5%, or 52 cents, to $34.78; Intel fell 1.3%, or 30 cents, to $23.67; and Cisco fell 2.4%, or 51 cents, to $20.61.