Tuesday's early afternoon trade: stocks fall

US stocks fell on Tuesday, as a disappointing outlook from Hewlett-Packard Co and another batch of soft US data added to growing trepidation about the strength of the economy. The declines caused both the benchmark S&P and Nasdaq at times to fall below their 50-day moving averages, a technical symbol that could indicate further weakness is possible.
Tech stocks fell as investors sold recent winners due to unease about pockets of weakness in the US economy. The PHLX semiconductor index, composed partly of suppliers of desktop computer chips, dropped 1.7 percent. HP, the world's largest technology company, tumbled 8.1 percent to $36.56 after cutting its forecast due to problems stemming from Japan's earthquake and soft PC sales. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 136.38 points, or 1.09 percent, to 12,411.99. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 7.09 points, or 0.53 percent, to 1,322.38. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 14.32 points, or 0.51 percent, to 2,767.99.