By YOUNG MONEY Staff
10 August 2011

All of the groups in the Standard and Poor's (S&P) 500 index were subject to drops of at least two percent on August 10. Several major U.S. stocks experienced drops of over nine percent, including Bank of America, Citigroup Inc. and Walt Disney Company, and the overall S&P 500 index dropped by a total of 3.9 percent, according to Bloomberg.

This recent drop can be considered part of the continuing trend of decline in the major financial index. Since it reported its highest 2011 numbers on April 29, the S&P 500 futures have dropped a total of 14 percent.

Approximately $2.6 trillion worth of U.S. market value has been lost as a result, prompted by various crises over government debt in America as well as throughout Europe.

The news source reports that companies in the financial sectors, as well as those in some way contingent upon the strength of the economy, were subject to the most significant reductions in stock prices.

According to CBS News, S&P is under intense scrutiny and criticism for its devaluation of the U.S. government's credit rating, a major source of the dropping stock prices. The financial ratings firm did acknowledge that it had made a number of errors in some of its calculations.