New York ? The Nasdaq composite index slid to a six-year low Monday and the rest of Wall Street fell equally hard amid a worsening outlook for the U.S. economy. The Dow Jones industrials dropped more than 100 points.

Responding to a smattering of bad news and lacking any positive economic data investors essentially sold across the board, punishing shares of everything from Microsoft to Wal-Mart. The sell off carried the Nasdaq to its lowest close since September 1996, and the Dow back toward the four-year low it reached July 23.

The air is thick with concern about the pace of corporate profit growth or the lack thereof, and I think the reports that were seeing about a possible retest of Julys lows are somewhat making that a self-fulfilling prophecy, said Charles Crane, strategist for Victory SBSF Capital Management.

The Nasdaq fell 36.16, or 3.0 percent, to 1,184.93, its lowest close since it reached 1,165.81 on Sept. 12, 1996.

The broader market also retreated.

The Dow fell 113.87, or 1.4 percent, to 7,872.15, after declining 3.9 percent last week. The losses gave the index its third triple-digit decline in five sessions and put it just 169 points above its July 23 low, 7,702.34.

The Standard & Poors 500 index declined 11.69, or 1.4 percent, to 833.70, following a weekly drop of 5 percent.

Analysts say the strength of the economic recovery has been investors main concern, particularly with the release of earnings warnings this month. Mondays news gave investors little reason to believe that a turnaround would happen anytime soon and left open the possibility of whats called a double-dip recession.