Stocks fell sharply yesterday, driving the major market indices to losses for the year, as investors buckled under a fresh load of pessimism over leading technology names like Dell Computer and Motorola. With yesterday's sell-off, the Nasdaq is barely up for the year with a fractional gain of 0.02 per cent, the Dow is off 0.06 per cent, and the S&P 500 is down 0.42 per cent. For the week, the Nasdaq dropped 7.1 per cent, to Dow 0.76 per cent, and the S&P 500 2.57 per cent.

Dell fell almost 10 per cent, or $2.56, to $23.50 on a report that the world's No. 2 personal computer maker was readying major expense cuts and may consider layoffs.

Motorola shares dropped $0.92, or 4.6 per cent, to $18.90, after announcing it was cutting 4,000 jobs in its semiconductor unit in 2001 as a result of slowing demand.