Wall St declines on weak economic data; Dow down 109 pts

US markets ended lower with the Dow clocking triple digit losses. Corporate news and poor economic data led to the downfall. US Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson said that there is a need to strengthen & clarify rules governing the financial sector.

Financials were the days biggest decliners. Oppenheimer slashed its earnings estimates on four US banks, to reflect expected mortgage and CDO related write-downs. In economic news, durable-goods orders fell 1.7% in February. Economists had expected durable-goods orders to rise 0.8%.

With a surge in oil, energy stocks advanced with Exxon and Chevron leading the advance.

The Dow plunged 109.74, or 0.88%, to 12,422.86. The Standard & Poor's 500 index declined 11.86 points, or 0.88%, to 1,341.13, while the Nasdaq composite index shed 16.69 points, or 0.71%, to 2,324.36.

A look at how the Indian ADRs performed: