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NEW YORK -- U.S. stocks fell as new signs of a slowing economy and disappointing profits drove down the Nasdaq composite index for the fourth time in five sessions. Cisco Systems Inc. led the decline. Dow tumbles 250;
Nasdaq falls159Bloomberg News
The Nasdaq lost 159.18, or 6.2 percent, to 2,407.65. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 34.99, or 2.6 percent, to 1,298.35. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 250.40, or 2.3 percent, to 10,662.01.
For the week, the Nasdaq lost 2.5 percent, even after recording its biggest one-day gain, 14.2 percent, following the Federal Reserve's half-point cut in interest rates on Wednesday. The S&P 500 dropped 1.7 percent while the Dow lost 1.2 percent to start the new year.
The New York Stock Exchange composite index fell 11.42 to 640.65, the American Stock Exchange composite index lost 5.64 to 864.37 and the Russell 2000 index tumbled 14.06 to 463.14.
Decliners outnumbered advancers on the NYSE with 1,691 down, 1,250 up and 374 unchanged. Volume came to 1.42 billion shares compared with a record 2.1 billion yesterday.
Treasuries, meanwhile, rose for the third time in four days, with notes completing their eighth winning week in the last nine. The 10-year note rose point to a price of 106 1/4. Its yield fell 11 basis points to 4.92 percent. The two-year note rose 13/32 to 101 1/32 as its yield dropped 23 basis points to 4.56 percent, the lowest level in almost two years. The 30-year bond rose less than notes, rising 21/32 to 112 14/32, as its yield fell 4 basis points to 5.40 percent.
"We had too much exuberance right out of the gate," said Scott Schermerhorn, whose $1.2 billion Liberty Growth & Income Fund returned 16 percent last year even as the S&P 500 lost 9.1 percent. "Yes, the Fed is coming to the rescue, but we've got some pretty unpleasant fundamentals to look at for the next six months."
Cisco, the No. 1 maker of computer-networking equipment, fell $5.25 to $36.63 and was the most-active stock with 122 million shares trading.
The stock has lost 28 percent over the past year.