Dow Drops; Stock Market Reacts To Steve Jobs’ Retirement: Acadiana Business Index

Mark Lasseigne tells you about the Dow's 171 point fall today and Wall Street's reaction to the announcement of Steve Jobs' retirement at Apple.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average drops 171 points to 11,150.
• Stocks opened higher but quickly lost gains and turned sharply lower, amid an unusually heavy swirl of news, from the announcement of Steve Jobs' retirement at Apple, to Berkshire Hathaway's $5 billion investment in Bank of America, and ahead of tomorrow's highly anticipated speech from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

• Also, a disappointing report on a rise in the number of people claiming new unemployment benefits last week weighed on stocks. Americans filing for new jobless claims rose by 5,000 to 417,000 for the week, according to the Labor Department.

• Crude oil settled modestly higher, pulled up by gasoline which soared over 3% on fears that Hurricane Irene could disrupt supplies along the East Coast.

  Crude-oil closed at $85.30 a barrel on the New Your Mercantile Exchange.

• Gold prices rose with the market's steep decline.  Gold closing at $1,763/ounce.