A board at the New York Stock Exchange displays the Dow Jones Industrial Average soon after the opening bell, February 8, 2010. The Dow has been teetering above and below the 10,000 range throughout the trading day. [Photo: Xinhua/Reuters]

Dow average closed below 10,000 points level for the first time since last November on Monday as European debt crisis triggered a heavy sell-off in financials.

As of market closing, the Dow Jones fell 103.84, or 1.04 percent, to 9,908.39. The Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 9.45, or 0.89 percent, to 1,056.74 and the Nasdaq lost 15.07, or 0.70 percent, to 2,126.05.

Two stocks fell for every one that rose on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume came to 1.1 billion shares compared with 1.6 billion shares Friday.

Concerns over the debt situation in Europe, which spurred jitters in the market and led to big sell-offs last week, still weighed on the market on Monday.

Soaring budget deficit in several weaker European economies including Greece, Portugal and Spain exacerbated investors' worries about the health of the global financial system. Banking shares were among the top laggers on Monday.

U.S. stocks started to retreat in the second half of January when President Barack Obama proposed tighter regulation over big financial institutions. Investors were uneasy about the details of new rules and how they will affect the market.

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will begin to lay out a blueprint for a credit tightening this week. Many expect that if Fed believes the economic recovery is sufficient enough, it will consider a gradual increase in the interest rate on excess reserves, the interest Fed pays banks on money they leave on reserve at the central bank which currently stands at 0.25 percent.

The dollar weakened against both the euro and the Japanese yen on Monday, boosting commodities prices. Crude oil climbed 70 cents to settle close to 72 U.S. dollars. Gold futures also rallied. Energy and material shares rose.

Major indexes turned positive in late morning trading, boosted by upbeat earnings. Toy maker Hasbro rallied 12.7 percent after reporting a 77 percent jump in fourth-quarter profit to 165.6 million dollars, or 1.09 dollars a share, easily beating estimates.

CVS Caremark rose 5.3 percent to 32.72 dollars a share after reporting an 11 percent rise in net profit to 1.05 billion dollars, and exceeding forecasts for seasonal earnings.

Nasdaq OMX Group dropped nearly four percent despite beating topping analysts' expectations. Nasdaq's fourth-quarter earnings rose 23 percent amid prior-year write downs and currency impacts. Earnings of 46 cents per share and a net revenue of 369 million dollars were better than average forecasts, but the decline in revenue disappointed investors.

In company news, Home Depot gained 2.2 percent after Morgan Stanley upgraded the stock to overweight from equal weight.