NEW YORK -- Stocks fell sharply today after another late sell-off extended the market's steep slide into a third week. Dow off 96.55
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 96.55 points to 8,786.74 despite two fleeting forays into positive territory during the day. The blue-chip barometer now sits about 550 points below the record of 9,337.97 set on July 17. It was the Dow's first close below 8,800 since June 22.
Broader stock indicators also suffered hefty losses, with the smaller-company sector continuing to draw the heaviest selling.
The Nasdaq composite index fell 21.29 to 1,851.10, with the weakness among secondary names offsetting a strong session for several bellwether technology stocks.
Decliners outnumbered advancers by a 2-to-1 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 960 up, 2,116 down and 480 unchanged.
The Standard & Poor's 500 fell 8.23 to 1,112.44, and the NYSE composite index fell 4.38 to 560.89.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 6.39 to 413.36.
And the small-company dominated American Stock Exchange composite index fell 8.39 to 697.87.
NYSE volume totaled 617.62 million shares, down from 641.87 million on Friday.
Overseas, Tokyo's Nikkei stock average fell 1.3 percent, Frankfurt's DAX index fell 2.7 percent and London's FT-SE 100 fell 0.5 percent.
The benchmark 30-year Treasury bond rose 25/32, or $7.81 per $1,000 bond, pushing the yield down 5 basis points to 5.66 percent. It was the biggest gain since June 15.
The two-year note's yield dropped 3 basis points, to 5.45 percent.