NEW YORK — Wall Street skidded Thursday after the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and after the Commerce Department’s report on durable- goods orders exacerbated concerns about the U.S. economy. The major indexes each lost well over 1 percent, and the Dow Jones industrial average fell 192 points.
Bhutto’s assassination raised the possibility of increasing political unrest abroad, always an unsettling prospect for investors who have been contending with domestic economic concerns for months. Oil prices rose following the news, and that unwelcome inflationary trend only added to Wall Street’s uneasiness.
Meanwhile, the government said orders for durable goods — big-ticket items from commercial jetliners to home appliances — rose by 0.1 percent last month. Economists had been looking for an increase of 2.2 percent. Still, November saw the first rise in durable-goods orders in the past four months.
In a bright spot, the Conference Board said its Consumer Confidence Index advanced to 88.6 in December from a revised 87.8 in November. It was the first increase since July. Wall Street had expected a slight drop.
Investors track the employment and consumer-confidence figures because consumer spending represents about two-thirds of economic activity in the United States.
“The data came in a bit softer than people were anticipating, and then you throw in the situation in Pakistan, and that’s led people to rush back into Treasurys,” said Tom Higgins, chief economist at Payden & Rygel Investment Management in Los Angeles.
Thursday’s drop was perhaps exaggerated by the fact that many traders were on vacation, making volume light and price swings more severe. Still, given the political uncertainty overseas, many investors were likely selling because they were uneasy about holding long positions going into a holiday weekend.
The Dow fell 192.08, or 1.42 percent, to 13,359.61. Broader stock indicators also fell. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index declined 21.39, or 1.43 percent, to 1,476.27, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 47.62, or 1.75 percent, to 2,676.79.
Bond prices rose sharply as investors worried about political instability sought the safety of U.S.-backed investments. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 4.20 percent from 4.28 percent late Wednesday. The dollar fell against other major currencies, while gold prices rose.
