Stocks Plunge As War Effort Bogs Down

Stocks plunged Monday as the war in Iraq bogged down and the U.S. accused Russia of continued arm sales to Iraq.

An appearance on TV by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein – which may have been taped – also unnerved traders.

The Nasdaq plunged 52 to 1369, the S&P 500 fell 31 to 864, and the Dow plummeted 307 to 8214. Volume declined to 1.27 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.33 billion on the Nasdaq. Decliners led 25-7 on the NYSE, and 23-7 on the Nasdaq. Downside volume was 94% on the NYSE, and 91% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 16-29 on the NYSE, and 37-52 on the Nasdaq.

After the close, it was announced that Symantec will be added to the S&P 500 on Friday.

During the day, HP fell 5.5% on competition in the printer space from Dell , which lost 3.4%.

Next Level soared 24.5% on a new offer from Motorola .

EDS gained 1.5% on takeover speculation.

AOL , down 4.4%, is pinning its hopes on broadband.

Juniper fell 6.8% on earnings concerns, and Symantec dropped 8.2% on a downgrade.

J2 Global plunged on a valuation downgrade.

PC Connection plunged 20% on a warning and top-level resignation.

Lucent fell 7.4% despite a DSL deal with Sprint .

Commerce One fell 10% as it embarked on a new strategy.

Intel and National Semi both fell more than 5% after introducing handheld chips.

Lending Tree slipped 0.7% despite a deal with AutoTrader.com.

AskJeeves fell 6% despite a deal with Aventis Pharmaceuticals.

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