Markets Tumble As GE's Credit Outlook Lowered

Standard & Poor's lowered General Electric's credit outlook sending the markets tumbling with the Dow plummeting 219 points to 8605.  Nasdaq dropped 27 points to 1552.

On the upside

T. Boone Pickens highlighted wind energy as part of an alternative energy strategy to lift shares of turbine producer A-Power Energy Generation Systems (Nasdaq: APWR).

Falling oil prices lifted shares of UAL (Nasdaq: UAUA) and Continental (NYSE: CAL).

PIMCO High Income Fund (NYSE: PHK) will pay its previously declared dividend of $0.121875 per common share on December 17, 2008 to shareholders of record October 11, 2008.

On the downside

Jefferies & Co. analyst Adam Benjamin downgraded Atheros Communications (Nasdaq: ATHR) after the semiconductor maker lowered its fourth quarter outlook.

JPMorgan Securities downgraded Bucyrus International (Nasdaq: BUCY) saying that demand will continue to drop.

Jefferies & Co. downgraded Silicon Image (Nasdaq: SIMG).

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 3 to 2 on the NYSE and by more than 5 to 3 on Nasdaq.  The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks lost 7 points to 479.