Stocks Dive on Poor Profits

Downbeat earnings put the kibosh on yesterday’s outbreak of optimism on Wall Street, sending stocks down at the open. The Dow dropped 107 points, while the Nasdaq and S&P fell 1.7% and 1.4% respectively, the Wall Street Journal reports. Dow components DuPont, Caterpillar, and Pfizer all released dour guidance, with DuPont reporting a 30% net-income drop.

“We need to get earnings behind us,” said one fund manager. “They're not going to be great.” Tech companies like Texas Instruments, Logitech and Sun Microsystems also issued lousy outlooks and took big pre-market hits, with Sun shares down 13% and Logitech down 19%. Apple and Yahoo will report earnings after close. But there were positive signals in the credit market, as interbank rates declined yet again. (More stock market stories.)