The Dow Jones in­dus­tri­al av­er­age lost 178.46 points, or 1.44 per cent, to 12,212.79. The Stan­dard & Poor's 500 In­dex fell 27.57 points, or 2.05 per cent, to 1,315.44. The Nas­daq Com­pos­ite In­dex dropped 77.53 points, or 2.74 per cent, to 2,756.42. Wal-Mart Stores Inc fell 3.1 per cent to $53.67 af­ter the world's largest re­tail­er post­ed its sev­enth straight drop in US sales. Libyan leader Muam­mar Gaddafi used tanks, he­li­copters and war­planes to quell a grow­ing re­volt and scoffed at re­ports he was flee­ing af­ter four decades in pow­er. US con­sumer con­fi­dence rose in Feb­ru­ary to a three-year high on im­proved op­ti­mism about the econ­o­my and in­come prospects, ac­cord­ing to the Con­fer­ence Board, a pri­vate group.(Reuters)