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DuPont Co., the third-biggest U.S. chemical maker, declined after the company said third-quarter profit fell 30 percent as demand declined and cut its forecast.
Caterpillar Inc., the world's largest maker of bulldozers and excavators, said third-quarter profit fell 6.4 percent, missing analysts' estimates due to rise in costs.
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., the largest publicly traded copper producer, retreated more than seven percent as earnings were hurt by declining demand for raw materials.
3M Co. and American Express rallied in morning trading, after reporting earnings topped analyst estimates. But stock of American Express is still at ten-year low.
Gloomy earnings reports overshadowed another retreat in money market rates. The London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor, dropped to the lowest levels in over a month Tuesday. The rate on three-month loans in dollars declined for the seventh straight day to 3.83 percent from 4.06 percent.
The Nasdaq saw steeper declines than the other major indexes after server and software company Sun Microsystems warned it would post a big loss for its fiscal first quarter and book a write-down.
Texas Instruments Inc., the second-largest U.S. semiconductor maker, predicted a drop in sales. And SanDisk Corp., the biggest maker of memory cards for digital cameras, posted a second straight loss.
The Dow Jones average fell 231.77, or 2.50 percent, to 9,033.66. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 30.35, or 3.08 percent, to 955.05. The Nasdaq composite index shed 73.35, or 4.14 percent, to1,696.68.