Bear Stearns seeks emergency funds from Fed; Dow tumbles

NEW YORK, March 14, 2008 (AFP) - US stocks fell sharply Friday as the troubled investment bank Bear Stearns said it was receiving emergency funding from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond fell to 3.423 percent from 3.534 percent Thursday and that on the 30-year bond dropped to 4.346 percent against 4.454 percent. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions. The Dow Jones Industrial Average had lost a hefty 221.03 points (1.82 percent) to 11,924.71 at 1442 GMT in volatile trading.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite lost 48.23 points (2.13 percent) to 2,215.38 while the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index was down 29.54 points (2.25 percent) at 1,285.94.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. said it had teamed up with the New York Fed to help provide funds to Bear Stearns which has seen its finances ravaged by the US housing slump and a related credit crunch sweeping Wall Street.

The market gyrations occurred amid signs that the credit squeeze was deepening as Bear Stearns chief executive Alan Schwartz said the bank's liquidity position had "signficantly deteriorated" in the past 24 hours.

The bank's shares plunged 40 percent to 23.00 dol