Stocks Sink on Disappointing Profits

Updated from 7:59 a.m. EDT

Stocks in New York entered the tumble cycle at the open Tuesday as a horde of earnings statements from technology and financial firms had Wall Street traders hunkering down for a tough day.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 75 points at 11,392, and the S&P 500 fell 9 points to 1251. The Nasdaq was 24 points lower at 2255.

After Monday's close, Apple (AAPL Quote - Cramer on AAPL - Stock Picks) delivered third-quarter earnings that exceeded expectations, but it guided below the targets for the current quarter, sending shares down more than 10%.

In another technology flop, Texas Instruments (TXN Quote - Cramer on TXN - Stock Picks) missed on profits and provided a disappointing outlook.

Putting pressure on both financials and the Dow was credit card company American Express (AXP Quote - Cramer on AXP - Stock Picks), which fell short of estimates and offered cautious guidance for 2008. Its stock fell 11% after the report.

Fellow Dow member Merck (MRK Quote - Cramer on MRK - Stock Picks) delivered an earnings beat, but didn't offer forward projections after discouraging test results emerged for the cholesterol drug Vytorin, a joint venture between Merck and Schering-Plough (SGP Quote - Cramer on SGP - Stock Picks).

As the new day dawned, several more companies reported quarterly results. In financial services, Wachovia (WB Quote - Cramer on WB - Stock Picks) dropped an $8.9 billion second-quarter loss on shareholders, missing estimates. The bank also said it would be cutting 6,350 jobs, reducing its dividend and abandoning its wholesale mortgage business.

Regional bank KeyCorp (KEY Quote - Cramer on KEY - Stock Picks) announced a $1.1 billion loss thanks to a $1 billion charge related to a tax court ruling. On the other hand, Fifth Third (FITB Quote - Cramer on FITB - Stock Picks) also suffered a second-quarter loss, but beat analyst expectations.

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