Oil, which is heavily dependent on global growth, tumbled 6 percent to just above $58 a barrel at one point, while US and European stocks fell sharply. Shares of US automaker General Motors fell to lows last seen during World War Two.
The widening global slowdown has prompted a rash of corporate profit warnings and led some companies to warn about their ability to operate in the darkening environment. Obama urged President George W. Bush to back a second stimulus package to aid the economy and asked him to use existing bailout measures to help an auto industry battered by a rapid drop-off in sales, an aide said. A spokeswoman for Obama said he raised the issue in his meeting with Bush at the White House on Monday.