New York - The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped back below 10,000 points on Wednesday amid poor news for financial firms. The sell-off happened mostly in the final hour of trading, after a respected analyst, Dick Bove, downgraded the shares of banking giant Wells Fargo. The bank had reported better-than-expected third-quarter earnings earlier in the day.
"Wells Fargo's downgrade spooked investors," Michael Nasto of US Global Investors Inc told Bloomberg News. The news drove down financial shares as a whole.
The blue-chip Dow has been hovering around 10,000 points since last week, when it passed the symbolic mark for the first time in more than a year.
The Dow lost 92.12 points, or 0.92 per cent, to close at 9,949.36. The broader Standard and Poor's 500 Index fell 6.85 points, or 0.62 per cent, to 1,091.06. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index declined 12.85 points, or 0.59 per cent, to 2,163.47.
The US currency dropped against the euro to 66.61 euro cents from 66.94 euro cents on Tuesday. The dollar climbed against the Japanese currency to 90.97 yen from 90.73 yen.
