NEW YORK (AP) ó Traders put Wall Streetís big March rally on hold after the White House rejected turnaround plans from General Motors Corp. and Chrysler.
Financial stocks also weighed on the market as investors worried that banks will need fresh infusions of capital.
Analysts say the pullback, which began with a 148-point drop in the Dow Jones industrial average on Friday, wasnít a surprise given a 21 percent surge in the index over just 13 days in March.
At the close, the Dow is down 254 points, or 3.3 percent, at 7,522. The Standard & Poorís 500 is down 3.5 percent. The Nasdaq composite index is down 2.8 percent.
Seven stocks fell for every four that rose on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to a light 1.5 billion shares.