Major Averages Tumble After Lucent, Amazon Unleash Bleak News

(Updated from 1:25 p.m. ET)

Stocks continued to slide heading into the latter part of the trading day after Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan discussed inflation concerns and budget forecasts in his testimony before the Senate Banking Committee. Ugly earnings and outlooks from Lucent(LU Quote) and Amazon.com(AMZN Quote) weren't doing anything to help matters.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was off by 163 points, or 1.5%, to 10261.5. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 33 points, or 1.7%, to 1954.6. The broader-market S&P 500 was down nearly 19 points, or 1.6%, to 1172.3. The 10-year benchmark Treasury note was flat at 99 6/32, yielding 5.104%.

Lucent tanked on the heels of its third-quarter earnings release, which missed analysts' targets. The company said it would cut an additional 15,000 to 20,000 jobs, which caused the stock to drop $1.33, or 16.8%, to $6.57 on the New York Stock Exchange .

Checkpoint Systems(CKP Quote) fell $3, or 20%, to $12 after missing analysts' projected profit targets.

Online retailer Amazon was among the most active Nasdaq stocks, falling 23.5% to $12.26 after it announced Monday that third-quarter revenue would fall short of Wall Street's expectations. Meanwhile, Internet stocks are getting knocked around as a result of the news. Biotech stocks are also taking a beating, as the Amex Biotechnology Index is down 3.9%.

In overseas activity, the FTSE-100 dropped 1.57% to 5320.20. The Nikkei rose 2.36% to 11,883.25. The euro gained ground against the Japanese currency this morning, recently trading for 107.95 yen, up from Monday's closing price of 107.71 yen.