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With large portions of lower Manhattan still dark early Tuesday, U.S. stock exchanges said they were testing contingency plans to ensure trading resumes as soon as possible this week after Hurricane Sandy smashed into the East Coast.
U.S. markets will be closed for a second day, but the New York Stock Exchange said that despite reports that its historic trading floor suffered irreparable damage, no such damage has occurred and that contingency plans are being tested only as a safety measure.

Weak earnings from several large companies and a credit rating downgrade of several regions in Spain raised concerns about a slowing global economy... The Dow Jones industrial average finished the day down 1.8 percent, or 243.36 points, to end at 13,102.53, its worst performance since June. The losses added to the big declines on Friday, and dropped leading indexes to their lowest levels since early September, before the Federal Reserve announced its latest monetary stimulus program.

Expectations for third quarter earnings reports were dismal. But a recent flurry of high-profile reports has investors scowling even more at the weak revenue numbers.

A weaker forecast of economic growth in Asia is sending stocks lower in early trading on Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrial average is down 47 points at 13,563 shortly after the opening bell Monday morning. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell seven points to 1,454 and the Nasdaq composite gave up 22 points to 3,113.

Stocks got a boost on Wall Street from positive economic news on Monday. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 135 points to 13,572 in the first hour of trading. The market was already higher in the opening minutes of trading, then jumped at 10 a.m. after the Institute for Supply Management reported that U.S. manufacturing grew in September for the first time in four months.

Stocks are opening lower on Wall Street after some gloomy economic data from Europe. Just after the opening bell, the Dow Jones industrial average is down 53 points at 13,526. The Standard & Poor's 500 index is down seven at 1,453, and the Nasdaq composite index is off 28 at 3,152.

Shares of Apple moved above $700 for the first time ever Tuesday morning, boosted by a strong reception for the latest version of its popular iPhone.

A federal judge Thursday temporarily blocked the government from enforcing a new insider trading law that would require about 28,000 executive branch employees to disclose details of their financial transactions on the Internet.

The New York Stock Exchange said it will pay $5 million to resolve U.S. regulatory charges that it gave certain customers “an improper head start” on trading information.

UnitedHealth Group, the health insurance company, will replace Kraft Foods in the Dow Jones industrial average, the most widely known barometer of the American stock market... The change takes effect Sept. 24. S&P Dow Jones Indices, which manages the average, said it was dropping Kraft because it is about to become a much smaller company after spinning off its North American grocery business.