Dow drops more than 180 points
Stock prices dropped sharply on Wall Street today with the Dow industrials tumbling by triple digits for a second day on a spate of bad news.
The Dow Jones industrial average finished the day down 183.30, or 1.8%, at 10,241.12, the Nasdaq composite index fell 29.32 to 1,959.24, and the Standard & Poor's 500 index declined 19.38 to 1,171.65.
Even the prospect of another interest rate cut failed to boost stocks, likely because investors are interpreting more cuts to mean the economy is worse off than they thought.
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who testified before the Senate Banking Committee today, said another rate cut might be made if the economy did not improve.
Lucent Technologies slid nearly 19%, down $1.47 at $6.43, after announcing it lost 35 cents a share in its fiscal third quarter, wider than the 21 cents analysts expected. The struggling telecom firm also announced plans to cut another 15,000 to 20,000 jobs and eliminate its dividend in an effort to return to profitability.
Dow industrial Exxon Mobil fell $1.53 at $40.97 on earnings that missed Wall Street's expectations by 2 cents a share.
A bleak outlook from Amazon caused the internet retailer to plunge nearly 25%, down $3.97 at $12.06. Amazon, which announced earnings on Monday ahead of expectations, projected 2001 revenue growth of 11% to 16%, down from previous estimates of 20-30%.
AT&T, a Dow component, fell 59 cents to $19.46, after also issuing a revenue warning.
Among the advancers was McDonald's, which issued bullish statements about growth for the remainder of the year and rose 62 cents to $28.39. Honeywell, which surpassed earnings estimates by 2 cents a share, inched up 4 cents to $36.21.
Only two other Dow stocks moved higher - Procter & Gamble advanced 29 cents to $68.09, while Wal-Mart eked out 7 cents to close at $53.10.
