Stocks Plunge As Dow Loses 600 Points

Just an hour into the first trading day in a week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 600 points, although the Nasdaq was down just 81 points.

In the first few minutes after the open both major market indicators were off about 100 points, but the decline in the Dow continued, as investors seemed to ignore the half-point rate cut instituted by the Federal Reserve prior to Monday's open.

Among the leading industry stocks, IBM lost nearly 3 percent to $98.81, Microsoft was off 5 percent to $54.78, Intel declined 5 percent to $24.68 and Hewelett-Packard fell 8 percent to $16.26.

Among distributors, Ingram Micro fell 4 percent to $13.91 while Tech Data lost nearly 3 percent to $39.29.

Trading opened on schedule Monday morning for the first time since last Monday. Trading never opened last Tuesday, the day of the terrorist attacks.

Prior to the start of trading there was a two-minute moment of silence at the New York Stock Exchange followed by the singing of "God Bless America."

Security was tight in New York, especially downtown, near the site of the attacks, where Marines were plentiful. Still, it seemed as if most New Yorkers were back at their offices.