Wall Street slid sharply Wednesday on subprime mortgage market worries with the Dow Jones average trading down below the psychological 12,000 barrier for the first time since Nov. 6.

As of 1:00 p.m., the Dow Jones industrial average fell 82.43 to 11,993.53. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 8.12 to 1,369.83, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 10.26 to 2,340.31.

The markets plunged Tuesday pushing the Dow down by more than 240 points due to raising investors' concern about woes in subprime market.

Major stock indexes in Asia and Europe fell more than 2 percent on Wednesday as Japan's Nikkei stock average closed down 2.92 percent and Britain's FTSE 100 fell 2.37 percent.

Source: Xinhua