The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell below 9,000 points for the first time since August 2003 today, with markets preparing to close down for the seventh consecutive day on Thursday. The current value is somewhere in the neighborhood of 8,614.63 — a 6.73% fall for the day.

That wasn’t the only bad news from Wall Street as General Motors fell nearly 22% to the lowest level since 1950. The fall came upon news that the car manufacturer’s European sales continued a decline for the first 9 months in 2008, declining 1.9% through September. GM blamed the ongoing credit crisis and lack of European consumer confidence for the loss.

Meanwhile, J.D. Power has cut its U.S. light vehicle sales forecast for 2008 to 13.6 million units, with just 13.2 million units forecast for sale in 2009. Global Insight, another influential forecaster in the auto industry, also cut its sales projections and warned that it may take several years for those levels to recover.