Wall Street report: Monday close

ANGRY investors pushed markets to fresh four-year lows amid the deepening crisis of confidence. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average, down 15% in the past two weeks in its most dramatic slide since the crash of 1987, plunged 234.68 points or 2.9% to 7784.58.

The Nasdaq Index dropped 36.53 points or 2.8% to 1282.62. For the year, the Dow is off 22%, while the Nasdaq has retreated 34%.

'We're just seeing more of the same, with more gas being thrown on the fire,' said Bryan Piskorowski, market commentator at Prudential Securities. 'Nobody is stepping up to buy even though valuations are getting stretched on the downside. There's absolutely no bounce back, just more haze and malaise.'

Investors found more reasons to sell against a backdrop of company news which seems to feature at least one new disaster every trading.

Telco WorldCom's widely-anticipated bankruptcy filing, the biggest to date, had less impact than dismal results from a 'Baby Bell.' BellSouth, which serves consumers from Kentucky to Florida as America's third biggest local telephone service provider, plunged $5 or 18% to $22.61 after it said its business was weak and could remain so. Other telcos were buffeted in BellSouth's wake, with SBC sliding $2.72 or 10% to $23.96.

WorldCom rose five cents or 56% to 14 cents, apparently on hopes that it might receive an offer for all or part of the company. Its fate was virtually sealed a month ago after it disclosed it had rigged its books to the tune of nearly $4bn (£2.7bn). The company said service would continue uninterrupted to its 20m US customers.

Citigroup, a major lender to WorldCom, posted its biggest one-day loss in five years in slumping $3.96 or 11% to $32.04 on reports that it had guided bankrupt energy trader Enron in a scheme to inflate its figures. JP Morgan, also implicated in the alleged scheme, lost $1.58 or 6% to $24.52.

The sell-off was broad with big names sharing the pain. Alcoa shed $2.15 or 8% to $24.85, IBM eased $3.50 or 5%% to $68.50 and American Express lost $2.88 or 8.5%% to $28.97. Techs weakened as well, with Microsoft off $3.27 or 6.6% to $46.29, Dell down $1.30 or 5% to $23.77 and Sun Microsystems lower by 19 cents or 4.5% to $4.06.

Consumer products giant Procter & Gamble added $3.39 or 4.6% to $77.85 after it unveiled plans for a share buyback - a strategy finding favour in boardrooms as they seek to stem the share slide. By one reckoning, 30 companies have announced share buybacks totalling $18.4bn in the past week.

3M, which makes Post-It notes and Scotch tape, rose finished slightly higher at $109 as it topped quarterly earnings estimates.