U.S. stocks fell to six-week lows Monday as investors worried about the financialfallout from Japan's devastating earthquake and tsunami.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 80 points, or 0.7%, to 11964, in afternoon trading. Earlier in the session, the measure traded as low as 11897.31, its lowest intraday level since Feb. 1. General Electric skidded 2.7%. The company supplied reactor No. 1 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant about 150 miles from Tokyo.

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There was an explosion Saturday at the reactor following Friday's 8.9-magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami. GE Chairman Jeffrey Immelt said the U.S. conglomerate will offer technical assistance to its nuclear energy joint-venture partner Hitachi Ltd. and the Japanese government. Walt Disney dropped 1.7%. The company's Tokyo Disneyland and Disney Sea theme parks on the outskirts of Tokyo were closed for what is expected to be a 10-day period following the earthquake.

The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.7% to 2698. The Standard & Poor's 500 index shed 0.8% to 1293. Some market watchers are predicting that the recent stock declines--with the Dow on track for its third down day in the past four sessions-could be the start of a full 10% correction. However, others noted the market's resilience in recent months, saying the recent slip could be short-lived. Among the stocks hit hardest by worries over Japan, uranium producers tumbled, withDenison Mines down 22% and Uranium Energy down 21%. Shares of North American life insurers with exposure to Japan also lost ground, as Moody's Investor Service warned that insurance and reinsurance companies around the world face heavy losses following the earthquake in Japan, resulting in negative credit implications. Hartford Financial Services Group fell 2.8% and Manulife Financial shed 3.3%.

European markets posted steep losses Monday, as incidents at a Japanese nuclear-power plant raised concerns about the industry and weighed on shares of Areva SA and utilities such as E.On AG. Insurance stocks also declined, as investors mulled the economic impact of Friday's earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Shares of Swiss Re fell 4.5% in Zurich, Hannover Re AG was down 2% in Frankfurt and

Scor SE declined 3.4% in Paris. The Stoxx Europe 600 slumped 1.1% to close at 272.51. The index lost 0.9% Friday. Fears of a nuclear crisis in Japan increased. Several reactors have been damaged by Friday's quake and tens of thousands of people have been evacuated to protect them from potential radiation. Meanwhile, nuclear-related stocks throughout Europe came under pressure, as did utilities that have committed to large nuclear projects. In France, shares of nuclear-reactor maker Areva SA sank 9.6%. Shares of RWE AG fell 4.8% in Frankfurt and EDF SA declined 5.3% in Paris.

Among the main regional indices, Germany's DAX 30 fared the worst, losing 1.7% to close at 6,866.63, led by losses for RWE and E.On AG, which fell 5.3%. The declines came as Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday Germany was suspending for three months a plan to extend the life of the nation's 17 nuclear power plants. Fears that the incidents in Japan--where reactors had to be flooded with sea water to try and prevent them melting down--could compromise the global nuclear power renaissance helped drive up alternative-energy stocks.

Shares of SolarWorld AG jumped 13% in Frankfurt and Vestas Wind Systems, a maker of wind turbines, rose 7.4% in Copenhagen. France's CAC 40 fell 1.3% to close at 3,878.04, led by a 6.3% drop in share of Renault SA as one of its employees was put under investigation as part of a probe into whether the automaker had been the victim of a fraud. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 declined 0.9% to settle at 5,775.24, led lower by Burberry Group PLC, whose shares dropped 4.3% amid concerns about the luxury-goods group's exposure to Japan.

Peripheral markets had a positive day, however, after European leaders agreed late last week to boost the lending capacity of the region's bailout fund and to lower the interest rate on Greece's rescue loans. In Athens, the ASE Composite rallied 5.2%, led by a nearly 9% jump in shares of Piraeus Bank SA and a 10.1% rise by National Bank of Greece. Lisbon's PSI 20 index rose 0.9%--many analysts believe debt-laden Portugal will have to eventually tap Europe's bailout fund.

Tokyo stocks suffered their biggest fall in more than two years Monday after Japan's most powerful earthquake on record struck Friday, leaving a trail of destruction and forcing authorities to cope with a nuclear emergency, estimates of thousands of deaths and billions of dollars in insurance losses. But several metal and building-materials stocks in Asia edged higher on hopes for reconstruction opportunities in Japan, while coal shares climbed and uranium miners plunged on worries about prospects for nuclear-power projects. Investors were also looking at the ripple effects of the weekend euro-zone debt accord and the continuing crisis in Libya, particularly the Arab League's support for a no-fly zone over the country. The Nikkei Stock Average plunged 6.2% to 9,620.49 in Tokyo for its worst one-day percentage loss since December 2008.

Shares of Tokyo Electric Power Co. led the declines, plummeting 23.6% after an explosion hit the No. 3 nuclear reactor building Monday at the company's Daiichi plant in Fukushima Prefecture, after a similar explosion at the No. 1 reactor over the weekend. Insurers sold off in anticipation of claims from the quake, with Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co. falling 18.9% and Tokio Marine Holdings Inc. sliding 12.4%. Several exporters, banks and commodity-linked shares fell 5% or more.

Taiwan's Taiex fell 0.6%, but some other markets edged higher. China's Shanghai Composite added 0.1%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gained 0.4% and South Korea's Kospi rose 0.8%, while India's Sensex rose 1.5%. Trading in Chinese shares was choppy as market participants weighed the implications of the Japanese disaster, while lower-than-expected new yuan loan data for February indicated that Beijing's control on credit is tighter than anticipated. The region's steelmakers and thermal coal miners outperformed on hopes that thermal coal would benefit from a shutdown of parts of Japan's nuclear-power network.

Among steelmakers, Posco soared 8.3% in Seoul and Angang Steel Co. rose 4.8% in Hong Kong and 2.6% in Shenzhen; among other construction-related stocks, Anhui Conch Cement Co. rose 2.2% and Asia Cement Corp. added 2.1% in Taipei. Among coal miners, China Coal Energy Co. rose 1.6% in Hong Kong, while Coal India rose 1.2% in Mumbai.

Base metals on the London Metal Exchange closed mixed Monday as investors assessed the likely economic impact of Japan's devastating earthquake and resultant tsunami. LME three-month copper closed the day down $5 at $9,185 a metric ton--a fifth straight day of declines. Three-month lead, however, closed up $91 at $2,518/ton, while three-month aluminum closed $13 higher at $2,557/ton.

Crude-oil futures ended nearly flat Monday as concerns of a drop in Japan's economic activity weighed against views that additional oil products will be needed to generate electricity in the country. Light, sweet crude oil for April delivery settled 3 cents higher, at $101.19 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after trading as low as $98.47 earlier in the session. Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange traded 27 cents lower, at $113.57 a barrel.

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