The New York equities markets saw a second day of declines on Tuesday after Monday’s comments on inflation by Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke. By midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had lost 1 percent to 10,941.63. It was the first time since March that the Dow fell below the 11,000 mark. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.1 percent to 2,146.63, and has declined by 9.4 percent in less than two months. The S&P, meanwhile, was 0.8 percent lower on the day so far, to 1,255.84.

Mining stocks were down on declines in the price of gold and copper. Alcoa dropped 3.2 percent to $30.37, while Phelps Dodge was down 3.9 percent to $28.37.

Homebuilders dropped after Wachovia cut its rating on several companies from “outperform” to “market perform”. The downgrades were for Lennar, which was down 4.1 percent to $44.61; for Pulte, which dropped 6.7 percent to $27.75; and for DR Horton, which fell 7.2 percent to $23.02.

Among stock exchange operators, NYSE Group, which entered into an agreement with Euronext last week, was down 5.5 percent to $60.03 after French president Jacques Chirac said that he would rather see the Paris-based Euronext merge with Deutsche Borse, which continues to pursue such a merger. Elsewhere in the sector, Nasdaq dropped 2.5 percent to $28.37, while Intercontinental Exchange lost 3.6 percent to $49.75.

Lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac dropped 2.6 percent to $48.70 and 3.2 percent to $58.19 respectively after Credit Suisse downgraded both.

Internet search engine Google added 1.4 percent to $379.65 on the news that it will make spreadsheet software available online, possibly as a free alternative to Microsoft spreadsheet Excel.

The equities markets in New York were mixed at the mid-point of the session on Tuesday on weakness in the technology sector, set off by an unexpected profit warning from computer maker Dell. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.3 percent to 11,620.48, but the Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 were both essentially flat, with Nasdaq at 2,343.05 and the S&P at 1,325.43.

Dell Comptuer said after trading closed on Monday that its quarterly profits would likely be over 7 percent lower than it had forecast previously because of price cuts that had as their aims increases in market share and revenue. With three banks issuing price forecast cuts, Dell dropped 4.8 percent by mid-session to $25.16.

The automobile manufacturing sector had better news, as General Motors revised its first-quarter report, sending the company into profit for the first quarter. Deutsche Bank upgraded GM from “sell” to “hold”, and shares in the automaker added 4.6 percent to $24.64. Ford Motor was also up, gaining 1.9 percent to $7.10.

Miners also did well after the price of gold hit a 25-year peak at just below $700 per troy ounce. Newmont added 3.5 percent to $57.67, while Barrick gained 2.7 percent to $34.90.

Mortgate providers Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were both up after upgrades from Bank of America. Fannie Mae was upgraded from “sell” to “neutral” even though there reports that more accounting problems had been found there, sending shares up 3.1 percent to $51.70. Freddie Mac’s shares were upgraded to “buy” from “neutral” and added 1.7 percent to $63.32.

Midday on Wall Street saw the main indexes down amid profit-taking following gains on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average had dropped 0.4 percent to 11.092.99. The Nasdaq composite was nearly unchanged at 2,284.09, but the S&P 500 had fallen by 0.3 percent to 1,289.

The Nasdaq was helped by a 3.1 percent rise by Google, while the Dow was hurt by declines from several companies. Other news helped send the indexes down as well, as lower reported unemployment claims led to more speculation of more interest rate hikes to come. Losses were limited, though, as crude oil prices dropped after weekly inventories reports showed that US crude oil stockpiles had grown again.

Banks, insurers, and pharmaceuticals were down on the day, as was Viacom, in its first earnings report since parting ways with CBS. Viacom reported fourth-quarter profits were down 67 percent, sending its shares down 3.2 percent to $40.75. Paint maker Sherwin-Willams was also down, by 5.7 percent to $40.75.

Other losers on the day included American International Group, down 1.1 percent to $67.20; IBM, which dropped 1.3 percent to $80.30; and General Motors, dropping 1.9 percent to $20.78.

Fannie Mae, on the other hand, was up 2.5 percent to $57.33 after an internal investigation into an accounting scandal found no further problems.

Toll Brothers, the homebuilder which had seen recent losses, was up 2.6 percent on the day to $33.32 after it reported first-quarter earnings had risen 49 percent and that net income was up $163.9 million, which worked out to a gain of 98 cents per share.

Meanwhile, grocery chain Safeway was up 4.8 percent to $24.37 on a report of higher quarterly earnings than had been expected and comic book publisher Marvel Entertainment gained $1.27 to $17.38 after reporting on its fourth quarter and raising sales and earnings forecasts for this year.