Stocks were mauled yesterday, with the blue-chip Dow average again sinking below the key 10,000 level amid relentless selling by investors worried about the weak US economy, bleak corporate profits and Japan's troubled banking sector.

There were few places to hide as the latest chapter in the demise of the 1990s bull market unfolded. The sell-off pushed the Dow Jones industrial average below the psychologically crucial 10,000-point mark several times - in its 10th-largest point drop ever - to levels unseen since last October.

Most of the Dow's 30 stocks were down, and the blue-chip index has now shed almost 900 points since a recent peak of 10,858 last Thursday. The Nasdaq Composite Index closed well under the 2,000 mark, a level it reached on Monday for the first time in more than two years.