The first day of the last week in 2008 has not relaxed the negative onslaught on stocks. News of Kuwait dumping its financing deal for the Dow Chemical/Rohm Haas merger sent stocks wheeling lower. Oil advanced aggressively on supply concerns after Israel struck the Hamas controlled Gaza Strip with an air and ground offensive. The U.S. Dollar dropped over 2% against the Euro, further lifting oil and gold prices. The major indexes closed lower today, but well off their lows for the session. The DJIA lost -31.62 to 8483.93, the Nasdaq dropped -19.92 to 1510.32 and the broad based S&P 500 slipped -3.38 to 869.42.

Dow Chemical ( DOW | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) - Plummeted 18.97% or $3.59 to $15.33 after Kuwait pulled $9 billion dollars in credit to fund the Rohm Haas takeover.

AgFeed ( FEED | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) - The Chinese hog and feed maker fell hard 31.08% or 0.69 cents to $1.53/share after announcing an equity sale and cutting the planned share buyback plan.

Riverbed Tech ( RVBD | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) - Wedbush Morgan cut its rating to hold pushing the stock down 10.95% or $1.25 to $10.17/share.

Jones Apparel ( JNY | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) - The popular clothing maker dropped 19.04% or $1.07 to $4.55/share on disappointing holiday retail sales.

Oil climbed $2.31 to $40.19, gold added $4.10 to $875.30 and the fear index VIX added 1.20% to $43.90 as nervousness creeps back into stocks during this final week of 2008.