NEW YORK (CNNfn) - A tidal wave of selling that swept through the world's stock markets hit U.S. shores Thursday and sent Wall Street into a downward spiral at the ring of the market opening bell.
Once again, concerns that the world economy is in for trouble loomed large on investors' minds, and once again, the worst news came from Moscow.
The Russian ruble continued its slide, and for the second day in a row the country's central bank suspended all currency trading on the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange. Later, the central bank extended the suspension through Friday.
Meanwhile, calls for President Boris Yeltsin's resignation and rumors that he already had stepped down wreaked additional panic among market players.
Shortly after 10 a.m. the Dow Jones industrial average lost 185.11 points, or 2.2 percent, to 8,338.24. Trading volume on the New York Stock Exchange was heavy and market breadth was sharply negative. Volume in the first half hour of trading reached 125 million shares with declines beating advances 2,332 to 271.
The Nasdaq Composite tumbled 47.23, or 2.7 percent, to 1,720.90 and the S&P 500 index shed 20.58, or 1.9 percent, to 1,063.61.
Selling on Wall Street was broad-based and all major market indexes felt the sting. The Russell 2000 index of small cap stocks lost 9.05, or 2.4 percent, to 371.37 and the Dow transports fell 65.57, or 2.2 percent, to 2,879.77.
The only market investors felt safe in was the market for U.S. Treasury securities. The bond market rallied as panicked investors from around the world sought the safety of debt instruments backed by the U.S. government. The benchmark 30-year Treasury bond rose 20/32 of a point in price, lowering the yield to 5.37 percent. News that U.S. economic growth in the second quarter slowed down, but still surpassed analysts' expectations, helped underpin the gains.
The dollar continued to rise against the German mark, as investors sought safety. Germany, one of Russia's largest creditors, stands to suffer heavy damage in the event of a debt default by Moscow. The dollar eased against the Japanese yen after overnight Tokyo's influential Vice Finance Minister for International Affairs Eisuke Sakakibara once again raised speculation that a yen-propping market intervention might not be far off.
Multinationals hit the hardest
Shares of multinational corporations and banks were hit the worst, as their profits stand to lose the most in a global economic slowdown.
Large financial companies, whose exposure to international currencies and holdings of overseas bonds make them very vulnerable in times of world market troubles, led Wall Street on the way down. Citicorp (CCI) fell 6-5/16 to 127-9/16 and Chase Manhattan (CMB) shed 3-3/4 to 60-1/2. In the brokerage corner, shares of Lehman Brothers (LEH) plunged 5 to 52-11/16 and Merrill Lynch (MER) lost 4-5/8 to 80.
Among the biggest loser on the Dow, shares of J.P. Morgan (JPM) tumbled 5-1/16 to 112-7/8.
Shares of fellow Dow member Travelers Group (TRV) lost 2-9/16 to 52-1/16 and American Express (AXP) dropped 2-3/4 to 94-7/16.
And Coca Cola (KO) shed 3 to 76-3/16 after Merrill Lynch downgraded the company to "near-term neutral" from "accumulate." Merrill based its decision on bleaker profit prospects for the company because of the international market malaise. The brokerage kept its long-term "buy" rating on Coca Cola.
Large technology stocks, which also rely on sales overseas for a large part of their revenues, headed south with the rest of the market. Among the Dow components, IBM (IBM) shed 4 to 126-7/8, and Texas Instruments (TXN) fell 1-5/8 to 54-9/16.
On the Nasdaq, shares of Dell (DELL) lost 1-1/8 to 127-1/2, Intel (INTC) fell 1-5/8 to 81-3/8 and Microsoft (MSFT) dropped 1-5/16 to 111-1/4. 
-- by staff writer Malina Poshtova Zang
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