It was a wild day on Wall Street.

Just after 1 p.m. Iowa time, the Dow Jones industrial average plummeted nearly 1,000 points (992.60) below the day’s starting point, but by 2 p.m. it had recovered much of what was lost. The Dow finished a rollercoaster day down 347.8 points (3.2 percent).

The midday 992-point drop of the Dow was the largest intraday point decline in Dow Jones history, according to CNNMoney.com.

The Nasdaq composite index finished the day down 82.65 points (3.44 percent), and the Standard and Poor’s 500 was down 37.75 points (3.24 percent).

Fears of the European debt crisis and a technical glitch in the trading of Procter & Gamble Co. stock fueled the decline. (read more)

http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/06/markets/markets_newyork/index.htm

“It’s panic selling,” Burt White, chief investment officer at LPL Financial in Boston, told Bloomberg. “There’s concern that the European situation might cool down global growth and freeze the credit markets.”

The Dow’s largest one-day point selloff on a closing basis was Sept. 29, 2008, when the index fell 777.68 points.