Dow Off More Than 600 Points In Afternoon Trading

The Dow Jones Industrial Average stabilized somewhat in early afternoon trading Monday, but the index remained off more than 600 points in the first day of trading since the terror attacks.

With slightly more than two hours remaining in the trading day, the Dow was off 639 points to 8,967. The Nasdaq, meanwhile, was off nearly 100 points to 1,596.

Investors did get a boost just prior to the opening bell, when the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by half a percentage point. But the rate cut did not seem to be enough to keep the markets from sliding.

In early afternoon trading, IBM was down nearly 2 percent to $94.85, Intel fell 9 percent to $23.77, Microsoft lost 8 percent to $53.01 and Hewlett-Packard, already hard-hit since its proposed acquisition of Compaq Computer, dropped 10 percent to $15.96.

Among distributors, Ingram Micro slipped 1 percent to $14.30 and Tech Data lost 3 percent to $39.04.

It was difficult to find any stocks with gains, but EMC was managing to buck the downward trend. Shares of EMC inched up less than 1 percent to $14.02 per share.