Afternoon trade: Nasdaq briefly drops four percent in Wall Street slide

US stocks slid further on Tuesday, sending the Nasdaq briefly down more than 4 percent, as investors worried that the widening impact of the credit crisis threatened to drag the economy into recession. The Dow Jones industrial average was down 273.59 points, or 2.75 percent, at 9,681.91.
The Standard & Poor''s 500 Index was down 33.82 points, or 3.20 percent, at 1,023.07. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 66.39 points, or 3.56 percent, at 1,796.57.