NEW YORK >> Stock prices dropped sharply today with the Dow industrials tumbling by triple digits for a second day on a spate of bad news -- a wider-than-expected loss from Lucent Technologies, lower profits from Exxon Mobil and revenue warnings from Amazon.com and AT&T. Stocks tumble
on bad news from
Lucent, AT&TBy Amy Baldwin
Associated Press"Pretty much all of Corporate America has said the same thing: Second quarter was bad and we don't know what to say about the future," said Arthur Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co.
The Dow Jones industrial average finished the day down 183.30, or 1.8 percent, at 10,241.12, according to preliminary calculations. The Dow topped its 152-point loss of yesterday.
The market's broader indicators also ended significantly lower with the Nasdaq composite index falling 29.32 to 1,959.24, a 1.5 percent loss, and the Standard & Poor's 500 index declining 19.38, or 1.6 percent, to 1,171.65.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers more than 7 to 3 on the New York Stock Exchange, with 2,151 dropping, 980 climbing and 195 unchanged. Volume came to 1.4 billion shares.
The Russell 2000 index, the gauge of smaller company stocks, fell 8.44, or 1.8 percent, to 474.26. The NYSE composite index fell 10.36 to 598.12. The American Stock Exchange composite index closed down 14.61 to 875.04.
The price of the Treasury's 10-year note fell 1/32 to 99 6/32, while its yield rose 1 basis point to 5.108. The price of the 30-year note was unchanged at 97 26/32, with a yield of 5.525.
Investors have been unable to justify buying stocks while most companies say business isn't improving. A long list of firms have warned of shrinking profits and slumping sales, and others have said they cannot make accurate projections amid uncertainty about the economy.
Overseas markets were mixed today. Japan's Nikkei stock average finished the day up 2.4 percent. In Europe, however, Germany's DAX index fell 2.0 percent, France's CAC-40 declined 1.2 percent and Britain's FT-SE 100 lost 1.6 percent.