Stocks fell yesterday as the corporate-earning warnings that have plagued the market in recent weeks spread to a pillar of defensive investing: drug giant Merck.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 110.84 points, or 1.03 per cent, to end at 10,604.59, according to the latest data, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 23.47 points, or 1.16 per cent, to 2,035.29. The benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 11.63 points, or 0.94 per cent, to 1,225.41.
Merck tumbled almost 9 per cent, or $6.67, to $67.80, to a three-month low after warning it would miss earnings targets for the quarter and year because of sluggish sales of its key arthritis drug Vioxx and the strong US dollar.
The decline accounted for 40 per cent of the Dow's drop, and pushed the blue-chip gauge into negative territory for the week.
For the week, the Dow fell nearly 0.2 per cent, the Nasdaq gained one-third of a per cent and the S&P 500 added 0.9 per cent. Year-to-date, the Dow is down 1.7 per cent, the Nasdaq composite off 17.6 per cent and the S&P 500 down 7.2 per cent.
