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U.S. major stock indexes sunk further and ended another unforgiving month of February with a steep loss that left the Dow Jones industrial average at less than half its record high and the S&P 500 at its 12-year low.
 
The Dow Jones Industrial Average index declined 4.1 percent for the last week of February after breaking through its November lows previous week. The blue chips index was down 11.7 percent for February to 7,062.93. The loss is the worst since 1933, when it fell 15.6 percent, and its sixth straight monthly drop.
 
The Dow is now at its lowest close since May 1, 1997 after it is down 50.1 percent from its record high of 14,164.53 reached in October 2007. It came within 34 points of 7,000, a level it hasn't fallen below since October 1997.

The S&P 500 index closed the month at 735.09, leaving it with a monthly loss of 11 percent. It was the index's fifth monthly drop in six months; it managed a slender gain of 0.8 percent in December.
 
The index breached its Nov. 21 trading low of 741.02, which came during the height of the credit crisis. February closing level of the S&P 500 was at its 12-year low, since Dec. 18, 1996.
 
The Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 index, which reflects nearly all stocks traded in America, lost 10.3 percent for the month, its worst slump since October 2008. That's a paper loss of $1 trillion. Since its October 2007 peak, the Wilshire 5000 is down 52.7 percent, or $10.4 trillion.
 
Uncertainty over how banks will be relieved of the toxic assets that remain on their balance sheets has kept pressure on the markets. Experts criticize the lack of details in the government's plan to shore up the financial system.
 
The market is also wary of the prospect of nationalization, which would dilute shareholders. The announcement on Friday, Feb. 27 that the U.S. government would bail out Citigroup for the third time in the past five months inflamed concerns over how much more aid major banks will need to stay afloat. The dilution that Citigroup shareholders took is sort of an indicator of what could happen to other banks.
 
The problems in financials have spread to the rest of the economy, resulting in widespread job losses, corporate losses and tumbling home prices that in turn creating an economic crisis that has fed upon itself.
 
Wall Street was also shaken when the government's gross domestic product report showed that the economy fell at a 6.2 percent annual pace in the fourth quarter of last year, a much faster than earlier estimated pace. The GDP figure is the worst since an annualized drop of 6.4 percent in the first three months of 1982.