Stocks sank for a third straight session in New York yesterday. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 77.97 points - or 0.8 per cent. A big loss from Disney weighed heavily on the Dow, which recovered from several slides below 9,000 before capitulating during the final hour.

The Standard and Poor's 500 fell 9.78 to 1,095.14, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 21.54 to 1,835.14.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by nearly a two-to-one margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,019 up, 1,942 down and 537 unchanged.

NYSE volume totalled 581.62 million shares, against 593.12 million in the previous session.

The NYSE composite index fell 4.35 to 570.22, and the American Stock Exchange composite index fell 1.08 to 742.25.

The Russell 2000 index fell 3.48 to 475.89.