NEW YORK, Oct. 14 (Xinhuanet) -- Wall Street stocks fell sharply Thursday as crude oil prices rose near 55 dollars per barrel and US government delivered another group of downbeat economic data.

    The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 107.88 points, or 1.08percent, to 9,894.45 points. The Nasdaq composite index declined 17.51 points, or 0.91 percent, to 1,903.02 points. The Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 10.36 points, or 0.93 percent, to 1,103.29 points.

    On Thursday, crude oil futures closed high at 54.76 dollars, up1.12 dollars per barrel in New York. Crude oil prices reached 54.90 dollars a barrel in intraday trading, the highest level since 1983.

    On economic front, the Commerce Department said the nation's trade deficit rose to 54 billion dollars in August, the second-highest level in history and 6.9 percent higher than July. In a separate report, the Labor Department said first-time jobless claims rose 15,000 to 352,000 last week.

    With the soft economy and rising oil prices, earnings results from General Motors Corp. were particularly worrisome for investors.

    General Motors Corp. dropped 2.46 dollars to 38.84 dollars after reporting a sharp decline in its third-quarter profits, computer memory producer SanDisk Corp. fell 7.68 dollars to 20.52 dollars after its earnings missed market's forecasts, Hewlett-Packard Co. shed 52 cents to 18.38 dollars after Morgan Stanley lowered the company's stock rating, Citigroup fell 41 cents to 43.70 dollars and Bank of America Corp. shed 80 cents to 44.20 dollars despite their profits surpassed analysts' expectations.

    However, Apple Computer Inc. jumped 5.23 dollars to 44.98 dollars after the computer maker said its profits doubled from a year ago.

    On the NYSE, declining stocks outnumbered advancers by 4 to 3, and the trading volume was moderate at 1.49 billion shares. Enditem