NEW YORK -- Tuesday's Dow Jones industrials nosedive stood in contrast to a record high on the NASDAQ with the Dow continuing its decline Wednesday.
In stocks of local interest at midday, shares of Zions Bancorp, First Security Bank, Questar Corp. and Novell were all trading lower than Tuesday's close.Wall Street remained nervous Wednesday following the huge sell-off Tuesday that pulled the Dow down nearly 375 points.
The Dow was off about 50 points at the 9,745 level at midmorning. The NASDAQ composite index continued its pattern of outperforming the blue chip stocks and was up about 9 points at the 4,857 level.
Overseas markets were also rattled Wednesday by Tuesday's drop.
Investors were uncertain about the outlook for corporate profits after a surprising warning Tuesday from Procter & Gamble set off massive selling on Wall Street. The consumer products maker said higher raw materials prices would hurt its profits for the rest of the company's fiscal year.
The market was already uneasy about the earnings outlook for big industrial companies before Procter & Gamble's announcement. It was completely unnerved by the fact that even Procter & Gamble, whose products include consumer staples such as Crest toothpaste and Tide detergent, could be vulnerable to earnings problems, and investors began to sell off a broad range of stocks.
The Dow lost 374.47 and ended at 9,796.03, its lowest close in nearly a year.
Even the technology-dominated NASDAQ, which has been relatively immune from profit concerns lately, was hit hard. The index made a brief foray past 5,000 for the first time Tuesday, but it eventually fell victim to widespread selling.
In Paris on Wednesday, the benchmark CAC 40 index was down 0.09 percent, while London's Financial Times-Stock Exchange index was down 0.55 percent and the Frankfurt Xetra DAX index was down 0.83 percent.
In earlier trading in Tokyo and Singapore, stock indexes were able to hold their losses to below 1 percent in volatile trading.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei Stock Average, which fell sharply when trading began Wednesday, ended the session at 19,766.80, down 177.44, or 0.89 percent, from the day before.
"Judging by what happened in New York overnight, the (Nikkei) market is extremely strong," said Hidenori Karaki, a general manager of stocks at Tokyo-Mitsubishi Personal Securities.
In Hong Kong, stocks were down sharply in early trading but turned around late in the session. The blue-chip Hang Seng Index rose 86.07, or 0.5 percent, to 17,951.43, a new closing highs.
"Although the U.S. fall was to a large extent due to Procter and Gamble's profit warning, the fall has had strong repercussions in the Hong Kong bourse," said Alex Wong, a research manager at OSK Asia Securities Ltd.