US Markets end in big losses

Wall Street stocks finished markedly lower on Wednesday as oil prices soared to fresh record peaks above 123 dollars a barrel, renewing fears about inflationary pressures.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average of blue chips ended down 207.05 points (1.59 percent) at 12,813.78.

The technology-laden Nasdaq composite finished down 44.82 points (1.80 percent) at 2,438.49 while the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 25.69 points (1.81 percent) to a preliminary close of 1,392.57.

The Nasdaq had traded higher in morning deals, but all three indexes endured losses in subsequent trading as oil prices pushed higher.

On the corporate front, telecoms giant Sprint Nextel and Clearwire said they would combine their networks in a new company focusing on emerging WiMax wireless Internet technology with investment backing from Internet search giant Google, Intel and others.

The firms have agreed to collectively invest 3.2 billion dollars in the new company