NEW YORK -- Stocks fell sharply again today as the improving profit outlook of recent weeks grew more suspect with disappointing news from Walt Disney Co. and Hewlett-Packard Co. Dow off 61.28
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 61.28 points to 9,128.91 after halving a midday deficit of 115 points. It was the third straight losing session for the blue-chip barometer, which has now fallen 209 points from Friday's record close of 9,337.97.
The S&P 500 fell 0.99 to 1,164.08, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 9.39 to 1,969.75.
Decliners outnumbered advancers by nearly a 2-to-1 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,043 up, 1,920 down and 569 unchanged. NYSE volume totaled 736.48 million shares, up from 658.76 million yesterday.
The NYSE composite index fell 1.86 to 588.81, and the American Stock Exchange composite index fell 0.93 to 733.03.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 5.21 to 450.93.
The benchmark 30-year Treasury bond fell 25 cents, or $2.50 per $1,000 bond, pushing the yield up 2 basis points to 5.68 percent.
Hewlett-Packard, which warned late yesterday that it won't meet Wall Street expectations for its current quarter, fell $2.50 as one of the Dow's bigger decliners.
Merck & Co. Inc. led the Dow's slide for a second day, sinking $3.44 after plunging nearly $10 yesterday, when the drugmaker posted slightly weak second-quarter results and issued a discouraging outlook for the remainder of 1998. Disney, another Dow component, lost just 56 cents after coming in shy of analyst forecasts with late yesterday's report on second-quarter profits.