NEW YORK - May 20, 2010 - The stock market tumbled again Thursday after another drop in the euro and disappointing U.S. employment news darkened investors' already bleak view of the world economy. Interest rates fell sharply in the Treasury market as investors once again sought the safety of U.S. government debt.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell about 250 points at midday and all the major indexes were down more than 2%.

With Thursday's drop, the Standard & Poor's 500 is down more than 10% from its 2010 trading high last month. Such a drop is considered by most analysts to be a "correction" in the market. If the S&P 500 index closed at its present level it would be the first correction since stock indexes hit 12-year lows in March last year.

The market's slide over the past four weeks on worries about the global economy has been a painful reminder of the turbulent days during the 2008 financial crisis. On April 26, the Dow closed at 11,205.03, its highest point since the market hit bottom on March 9, 2008. Since then, it has fallen nearly 1,000 points. It has fallen in triple digits in nine of the 18 trading days since its peak.