Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
NEW YORK -- Stocks fell today amid gloomy outlooks from Hewlett-Packard and Gateway that stoked fears about worsening corporate profits. Dow down 84
Associated Press
The selling intensified on the government's report on wholesale prices, which indicated the economy might not be slowing enough for the Federal Reserve to match last week's interest rate cut at its next meeting later this month.
The Dow Jones industrial closed down 84.17 at 10,525.38. The Nasdaq composite index also fell, down 14.07 to 2,626.50, after waffling in and out of positive territory during the day. Today's loss ended a three-day advance and its longest winning streak since Labor Day. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 8.27 to 1,318.55.
Advancers and declining issues were nearly even on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,452 up, 1,398 down and 464 unchanged. NYSE volume came to 1.27 billion shares, compared with 1.35 billion yesterday. The NYSE composite index slipped 2.10 to 644.36; the American Stock Exchange composite index rose 5.77 to 900.30; and the Russell 2000 index was up 1.89 at 4854.75.
The price of the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell 1 1/16 points, or $10.63 per $1,000 in face value. Its yield, which moves in the opposite direction, rose to 5.24 percent compared with 5.10 percent late yesterday. The 30-year Treasury bond fell 1 13/32 point to yield 5.63 percent, up from 5.54 percent a day earlier, according to Bridge Telerate news service.
Today's stock selloff came as investors reacted to word from late yesterday that Hewlett-Packard would not meet quarterly or annual estimates because of soft demand. Lower-than-expected earnings and job cuts from Gateway compounded the bad news.
Both companies said they were surprised at how quickly their business had slumped, blaming deteriorating economic conditions.
HP, a Dow component, fell $1.69 to $30.69, pulling the blue chip index down with it. Gateway was off $1.80 at $21.10.