New York — The prospect of a U.S. economic slowdown spreading around the globe shook Wall Street Wednesday, sending the Dow Jones industrials below 10,000 and setting the blue chip index up for its worst week in more than 11 years.
The drop followed a nosedive in prices overseas as investors simply had no reason to buy.
The fears on U.S. markets matched those on exchanges in Europe and Asia that slowing economies will continue to hurt corporate profits and, in turn, stock prices.
"Anyway you put it, this is bad," said Gary Kaltbaum, a technical analyst for First Union Securities. "You are in the vicious cycle now."
"It's a combination of Japan and Europe getting slaughtered, and the 'throw in the towel' mentality here. I do not know where it ends."
While sellers recently have dominated the U.S. stock market, believing that poor earnings and the weakening economy in this country won't recover in the near future, the prospect of economic crises in other countries, especially Japan, unnerved investors around the globe Wednesday.
The Dow fell 317.34 to 9,973.46, recovering some ground after an earlier 395-point slide. But the losses easily wiped out Tuesday's 82-point advance and compounded Monday's 436-point drop.
It was the first time since Oct. 18 that the Dow closed below 10,000.
The session also brought a litany of other bad numbers for the stock market's best-known barometer:
l Already down about 6.3 percent this week, the Dow is poised to have its worst week in terms of a percentage decline since 1989, when it fell 7.76 percent the week ended Oct. 13.
l So far this week, the Dow has lost 671.16, the second-largest weekly point drop. The most the Dow has ever lost in one week was nearly a year ago, when it fell 805.71 the week of April 14.
Broader market indicators also skidded Wednesday. The Nasdaq composite fell 42.69 to 1,972.09, while the Standard & Poor's 500 tumbled 30.95 to 1,166.71.
It all added up to $270 billion loss in the total market value of New York Stock Exchange, American Stock Exchange and Nasdaq stocks on top of a staggering $554.5 billion beating Monday, according to Wilshire Associates of Santa Monica, Calif.
The Nasdaq composite index is about 61 percent off its record high of 5,048.62 set on March 10, 2000.
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