Market close: Blue chips hammered

A jump in crude oil prices to a new nine-year high and a profit warning from Procter & Gamble sent blue-chip stocks into a tailspin Tuesday as the Dow Jones industrial average plunged 374 points to 9,796.03.

For a change, even the technology stocks were unable to buck the selling trend. After spending much of the day flirting with the 5,000-point threshold, the Nasdaq closed off 57 points to 4,847.81. Full story. -- Larry Barrett, ZDNet Inter@ctive Investor