Late Selling Rocks Stocks

Updated from 4:09 p.m. EDT

Stocks closed near their worst levels of the day Thursday as investors started selling in the afternoon following another flood of corporate earnings and outlooks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 133 points, or 1.6%, to 8409. The Nasdaq lost 40 points, or 2.9%, at 1357, and the S&P 500 fell 24 points, or 2.7%, at 881.

After the close Wednesday, IBM (IBM Quote), the world's largest computer company, reported a big drop in second-quarter earnings and said it will incur a steeper-than-expected restructuring charge for previously announced job cuts and the sale of its hard disk drive business. ...