Stocks plunge as attention returns to weak economy

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks plunged again today as investors turned their attention back to the weak economy and Europe's debt problems.

More than half of the big gains that followed a Federal Reserve pledge to extend super-low interest rates vanished.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 232 points, or 2.1 percent, to 11,007 in afternoon trading. The average plummeted more than 300 points within minutes of the opening bell and was down as many as 468 points by late morning.

On Tuesday, the Dow gained 429 points after the Fed said it planned to keep interest rates extremely low at least through the middle of 2013. It was the first time the Fed announced such a timetable. But the day's gains were likely just a blip caused by computerized trading based on programs that dictate when to buy or sell, some investors and analysts said.

The rally was "so unbelievably fast, it's as though every computer on Wall Street hit the point where the program said `buy, buy, buy, buy, buy'," said Daniel Alpert, managing partner of investment bank Westwood Capital. "Machines don't read Fed announcements, people do - and they were reacting in a negative way."