Losing streak continues for Wall St.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Wall Street's stock selloff continued Monday with the Dow industrials finishing below 13,000 for the first time in months, as some financial sector strength and lower crude oil prices failed to calm jittery investors.

The Dow Jones industrial average (Charts) lost 55 points, or 0.4 percent, marking the first time the 30-stock index has finished below 13,000 mark since August.

The broader S&P 500 index (Charts) slipped 1 percent, while the tech-fueled Nasdaq (Charts) led the decline, losing nearly 1.7 percent.

Stocks moved higher at the start of the session as bargain-hunting investors looked to scoop up stocks badly beaten by last week's selloff. But the rebound appeared short-lived as investors couldn't seem to shake their persistent credit market fears.

"Nervousness is pretty rampant on the street right now over this subprime issue and that doesn't go away overnight," said Anthony Conroy, head trader at BNY Brokerage.

Last week, those fears, which were sparked after a round of writedowns from Wall Street's biggest banks, sent the 30-stock Dow industrials tumbling 4.1 percent, while the S&P fell 3.7 percent and the Nasdaq dropped 6.9 percent.

But fresh concerns emerged Monday following reports by both The Wall Street Journal and The Times of London that warned of forthcoming writedowns from British banking giant HSBC (Charts).

In addition, shares of the online brokerage E-Trade Financial Corp. (Charts) plunged 59 percent after the company warned late Friday that the deteriorating value of its mortgage-backed securities may force it to take significant writedowns in the fourth quarter.

Some battered financials, however, bucked the trend including Citigroup (Charts, Fortune 500), whose shares gained 1.5 percent and Goldman Sachs (Charts, Fortune 500), which ended 1.6 percent higher.

Also helping prop up stocks earlier in the session was a sharp drop in the price of crude, which fell more than $2 a barrel on reports that OPEC would discuss increasing its output at an upcoming meeting. Light, sweet crude for December fell $1.70 to settle at $94.62 a barrel in afternoon trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

With no economic reports slated for release Monday and the Treasury market closed for the Veterans Day holiday, investors were focused on the corporate front.

Blackstone Group (Charts) posted a net loss in the most recent quarter Monday, hurt by compensation charges. Blackstone shares slipped over 8 percent on the news, even though it reported higher revenue in its core private equity business, helped by higher fees.

International Business Machines (Charts, Fortune 500) announced Monday it agreed to purchase the business software maker Cognos Inc. (Charts) for about $5 billion.

Tyson Foods (Charts, Fortune 500), the world's largest meat processor, turned a profit in its quarterly results, helped by cost-cutting measures. But shares of the company fell 6 percent after it issued forecasts below analysts' expectations.

Market breadth was negative. Losers beat winners by nearly 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange on volume of 1.7 billion shares. Advancers topped decliners on the Nasdaq by nearly 3 to 2 as 2.81 billion shares exchanged hands.

Gold prices tumbled after last week's big run-up, as COMEX gold for December fell $27 to $807.70 an ounce.

The dollar rebounded against the euro but was lower versus the yen.

Looking ahead to Tuesday's session, investors will face results from Wal-Mart (Charts, Fortune 500), the world's largest retailer, and a report on pending home sales for September.