New York ? Jittery investors sent stocks tumbling Thursday as Wall Street was pummeled by a sharp climb in oil prices, rising unemployment and a disappointing forecast from General Motors Corp.

The Dow Jones industrials shed nearly 112 points.

Dan Walsh reacts to the drop in prices in the Chicago Mercantile Exchange's Dow Jones futures pit. There was a 390-point selloff on July 19, 2002. The market's lowest point was Oct. 9, 2002, when the Dow closed at 7,286.27.

Crude oil futures extended their gains, surpassing $48 per barrel and closing at a six-week high, as investors worried about declining U.S. reserves, the Iraqi elections and evidence of OPEC production cuts. A barrel of light crude was quoted at $48.04, up $1.67, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Wall Street also was unnerved by the latest first-time jobless claims report, which showed a jump of 10,000 claims to 367,000 last week, a three-month high. After Friday’s modest job creation report, the labor market remained a major concern for investors.

But while the markets held on with only modest losses through most of the day, General Motors’ outlook — at the low end of Wall Street expectations — sent stocks tumbling.

“You get a little bad news, and there’s nobody willing to step up and buy on the dip,” said Bryan Piskorowski, market analyst at Wachovia Securities. “It’s the same pattern we’ve seen nearly every day this year. Investors are being very conservative and playing this day-to-day. It’s not new to the market that GM’s robbing Peter to pay Paul, but it was enough to trigger some sell programs.”

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The Dow dropped 111.95, or 1.05 percent, to 10,505.83. Broader stock indicators also fell.