NEW YORK — A parade of grim news — from weak corporate earnings to a pullback at U.S. factories to spreading fault lines in Europe’s debt crisis — sent investors fleeing stocks for a third straight day Tuesday.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 104.14 points, or 0.8 percent, to 12,617.32. It was the third triple-digit point loss in row for the blue chip index. The last time that happened was September, when fears were rife that the U.S. was on the brink of another recession.
Lower earnings forecasts from corporate bellwethers such as United Parcel Service combined with the weak report on manufacturing fed fears of more disappointing results from corporate America in the coming days.
“Our guess is we haven’t seen the worst,” said Carl Yingst, chief market analyst at Joseph Gunner, an investment bank.
Investors around the world dumped stocks and fled to the relative safety of U.S. government debt. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to another record low and the dollar hit a two-year high against the euro.
Stocks fell from the start of trading following news UPS had cut its earnings forecast 4 percent for all of 2012. The package delivery company said it expects global trade to slow even more than the global economy this year, a first since the financial crisis. UPS’s stock fell $3.61, or 5 percent, to $74.34.
Also weighing on stocks, Spain’s borrowing costs spiked as investors worried that country could become the latest in Europea to ask for a financial lifeline. Spain’s banks have already received help from international lenders.
The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 12.21 points to 1,338.31. The Nasdaq composite was off 27.16 points to 2,862.99.
Early in the day, DuPont reported that its net income fell 3 percent for the second quarter on slower business in Europe and Asia.
Adding to the jitters was a report from Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond that indicated that manufacturing in the central-Atlantic region is contracting. That followed reports of pullbacks in New York and Philadelphia.
After the market closed, investors got a rare dose of disappointing news from Apple. The consumer electronics giant reported earnings that badly missed analysts’ expectations, sending the stock 5 percent lower in after-hours trading. Sales of iPhones came in at the low end of Wall Street’s forecasts. The stock fell $29.76 to $571.19.
