Nicor plunged US$15.26, or 40 percent, to US$22.75. The Illinois utility said it found differences between estimates of natural-gas sales and actual revenue at a joint venture with Dynegy Inc. Dynegy fell US$0.53 to US$3.97, extending its drop this year to 84 percent, the biggest in the S&P 500.
PepsiCo dropped US$4.10 to US$36.20. The second-largest soft-drink producer said second-quarter profit and sales at its Frito-Lay snack-foods unit rose less than forecast. Coca-Cola Co, the largest soft-drink maker, slid US$2.84 to US$45.09.
Sun Microsystems fell US$1.55 to US$4.25. The maker of computer servers said fiscal 2003 earnings and sales will be less than analysts predicted and it will have a "slight" loss this quarter.
Microsoft Corp fell US$1.55 to US$49.56. The world's biggest software company lowered its earnings and sales target for this year amid a slump in personal-computer demand.
HPL Technologies Inc fell US$9.86 to US$4.24 before NASDAQ halted trading. The software maker is investigating financial and accounting irregularities and said CEO David Lepejian has been fired. A "material amount" of revenue may have been improperly booked during one or more earlier periods, the company said.
Royal Dutch Petroleum Inc fell US$4 to US$42 and Unilever NV fell US$3.17 to US$53.40. The two Dutch companies were taken out of the S&P 500 after the close of trading along with five Canadian companies: Alcan Inc, Barrick Gold Corp, Inco Ltd, Nortel Networks Corp and Placer Dome Inc.
United Parcel Service Inc, one of the replacements, rose US$4.95 to US$67. Prudential Financial Inc, which climbed US$1.06 to US$32.45, and Goldman Sachs Group Inc, which gained US$1.40 to US$77, also joined the index.
The other four to be added were EBay Inc, Electronic Arts Inc, Principal Financial Group Inc and SunGard Data Systems Inc.
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