Dow, Nasdaq Close at Lowest Levels Since Early April
Updated from 3:35 p.m. EDT
Stocks sold off all day following bad news from the retail and wireless sectors, and the major averages closed at their lowest levels since early April.
The
Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 192.43 points, or 1.9%, to 9840.84. The
Nasdaq finished down 53.37 points, or 3%, to 1705.64, and the
S&P 500 was down 25.34, or 2.2%, to 1106.40.
Manugistics
(MANU) - Get Report
plummeted $3.16, or 28.8%, to $7.80 after issuing a profit warning last night.
Gap
(GPS) - Get Report
lost $4, or 21%, to $15 after posting a 17% drop in August same-store sales.
Wal-Mart
(WMT) - Get Report
shed $1.78, or 3.6%, to $47.37.
Shares of
AnnTaylor
(ANN)
fell 51 cents, or 1.5%, to $32.50.
Compaq
(CPQ)
was among the most active stockson the
New York Stock Exchange
, trading down 6 cents, or 0.6%, to $10.35.
Nokia
(NOK) - Get Report
fell 90 cents, or 6.5%, to $12.95.
Microsoft
(MSFT) - Get Report
received a boost earlier today when the Justice Department said it wouldn't pursue trying to break up the software company as a possible remedy in the government's antitrust case. However, the rally was short-lived as Wall Street tried to decipher the implications of the announcement. Microsoft traded down $1.72, or 3% to $56.02.
Earlier Thursday, the Labor Department released its weekly initial jobless claims report, which revealed a slight drop in the number of first-time claims. The total fell to 402,000 from 405,000 the previous week.
In Treasuries, the 10-year note was recently up 29/32 to 101 5/32, yielding 4.85%. As for currencies, the dollar was stronger against the yen and the euro.
Overseas, European stocks were stung by continued weakness in the telecom sector. The bourses dropped across the board, with exchanges in Britain and Germany hitting their lowest levels in more than two years. In London, the FTSE 100 traded down 112 points, or 2.1%, to 5204. Japan's Nikkei 225 closed up 52 points, or 0.5%, to 10,650 on the strength of banking stocks. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was also hurt by telecom as the index dropped 279 points, or 2.6%, to 10,664.
