Wall Street stocks fell the most for a month on Wednesday after record high oil prices hurt consumer and transport stocks and financials tumbled on speculation that new regulations will force them to disclose further losses.

Bank and brokerage stocks slumped 3.7 per cent, their biggest one day fall since mid-March, after the Securities and Exchange Commission said it would require them to disclose capital and liquidity levels as early as this year to avoid the kind of damaging rumours that undermined Bear Stearns.