Stocks fell sharply in New York yesterday after another late sell-off as the market's steep slide entered a third week.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 96.55 points to 8786.74 despite two fleeting forays into positive territory during the day. The blue-chip barometer is now about 550 points below the record of 9337.97 set on July 17th.

Broader stock indicators also suffered hefty losses, with the smaller-company sector continuing to draw the heaviest selling.

The market's powerful summer rally cooled off about two weeks ago amid signs that the US economy and company profits would not improve in the second half of the year as hoped.

The Nasdaq composite index fell 21.29 to 1851.10, with the weakness among secondary names offsetting a strong session for several bellwether technology stocks.

The Standard and Poor's 500 fell 8.00 to 1112.67, and the NYSE composite index fell 4.38 to 560.89.