Stocks in the United States fell on Wednesday as a big rally faltered in the last minutes of trading.
The Dow plunged more than 300 points in the last 12 minutes after a report on CNBC raised questions about the earnings outlook for General Electric. GE stock fell 4% to end at $US19.20. GE owns CNBC.
Trading was volatile after the Federal Reserve slashed interest rates by half a percentage point, to 1% - its lowest level since 2004.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 74.16 points, or 0.82%, to close at 8,990.96.
Standard & Poor's 500 Index declined 10.42 points, or 1.11%, to 930.09. But the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 7.74 points, or 0.47%, to 1,657.21.
In contrast, at about 3:30pm EDT, all three indexes were up. But by 3:58pm, the rally was over, with both the Dow and the S&P turning negative.
Trading was moderate on the New York Stock Exchange: about 1.62 billion shares changed hands - below last year's estimated daily average of roughly 1.90 billion, while on Nasdaq, a
About 2.79 billion shares were traded on the Nasdaq - above last year's daily average of 2.17 billion.
Other markets
Earlier, British and European markets rose sharply.
The FTSEurofirst 300 rose 7.51% to 897.06 points on Wednesday.
In France, the CaC 40 added 9.23%. However, in Germany, the Dax index was down 1.5%.
In Britain, FTSE 100 index closed up 8.05% at 4,242.54.
The Nikkei index in Japan earlier rose by 7.7%. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index rose 1.4%.
However, in South Korea, the Kospi closed down slightly at 968.97.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX200 index was up 1.34%.
New Zealand's NZX 50 ended the trading day 2.2% higher to close at 2746 on turnover of $88 million.
