Nov. 21--Overwhelmed by uncertainty, investors fled the stock market again Thursday, knocking another 5.6% out of the Dow Jones industrials and sending the Standard & Poor's 500 Index to its lowest mark in 11 years.

In the last two days alone, the Dow is down more than 10% -- its biggest two-day percentage decline since 1987. For the year, the Dow has lost 43% and the S&P 500 has retreated 49%.

"It really looks like people are just throwing their arms up and saying, 'We don't want to hold securities overnight,' " said Brian Jacobsen, senior analyst for Wells Fargo Funds Management in Menomonee Falls. "It's almost as if everybody is saying, 'We're out of here.' And then prices just go down."

Figuring into Thursday's plunge was the unwillingness of Congress to immediately put together a rescue package for the nation's big automakers, the ongoing slide in oil prices and the stunning drop in the stock price of Citigroup. Shares of the big New York bank decreased $1.69, or 26%, to $4.71. It was the biggest loser in the 30 stocks that make up the Dow.

When the S&P, which reflects the broader market, broke through lows established in 2002 on Thursday, more selling occurred.

But looming over everything right now is a likely recession that many economists predict will last until the middle of next year.

"The stock market appears to be struggling to catch up with rapidly declining expectations for the economy," Bruce Bittles, chief market strategist from Milwaukee's Robert W. Baird & Co., said in a report issued late Thursday afternoon.

Maureen Busby Oster, chief investment officer for MBO Cleary Advisors Inc. in Milwaukee, said what's happening to the market is "breathtaking" to her, after almost 40 years in the business.

"If you look at the value of companies in markets like this, investors seem to be very indiscriminate," she said. "So bad companies get sold off and good companies get sold off."

Little stability

Wall Street covets stability, and there is very little of that right now, investment analysts said.

"The rules to analyze stocks are kind of being thrown out the window," said George Reis, president of Two Rivers-based George V. Reis Investment Group.

The Dow closed down 444.99 points, or 5.56%, to 7,552.29, its lowest close since March 12, 2003. The S&P 500 index lost 54.14, or 6.71%, to 752.44, its lowest close since April 14, 1997. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 70.30, or 5.07%, to 1,316.12.