Wall Street fell at the open on Monday on worries that problems persist for the struggling banking sector and after Bank of America's results relied heavily on one-time items as credit quality deteriorated markedly.

Financial shares faced pressure after Bank of America Corp posted a big increase in troubled loans, while its purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co helped quarterly profit more than double.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> dropped 121.79 points, or 1.50 percent, to 8,009.54. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> fell 15.67 points, or 1.80 percent, to 853.93. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> lost 31.30 points, or 1.87 percent, to 1,641.77.

(Reporting by Edward Krudy; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

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