NEW YORK (CNNfn) - U.S. stocks fell Thursday, sending the Nasdaq composite index to its fourth loss in four days and Dow Jones industrial average to its second straight tumble.
Analysts cited no fresh news behind the broad sell-off, which came despite a batch of strong first-quarter earnings reports.
In a day of wild swings, bargain hunters nibbled on tech stocks but quickly sold off on any gains. The Nasdaq is now down 9.6 percent this year and off 27 percent from its record high set March 10.
 The Nasdaq slumped 92.85 points to 3,676.78, down 2.5 percent. The index gave back earlier gains in the last hour of trading, unable to temper the 770-point drop this week.
The loss puts the Nasdaq just 20 points above the intra-day low point reached April 4, when the index fell 574-points, or 13.5 percent, before recovering.
"It's an important number," Robin Griffiths, chief technical analyst at HSBC Securities, told CNN's Street Sweep. He sees the tech shakeout continuing as investors become more discriminating and sift through which tech companies are stable and which are more speculative.
 Meanwhile, the Dow Jones industrial average slipped 201.58 points to 10,923.55, off almost 2 percent.
"We've got a topsy-turvy market," said Al Goldman, chief market strategist at A.G. Edwards. "We had some profit-taking in the Dow and some bottom fishing in the Nasdaq."
More stocks fell than rose. Decliners outpaced advancers on the New York Stock Exchange, 1,723 to 1,246, as more than 1 billion shares changed hands. Losers beat winners on the Nasdaq, 2,806 to 1,414, on volume of more than 1.9 billion shares.
The dollar strengthened against the euro but eased versus the yen. Treasury securities rose.
Nasdaq not out of the woods yet
The Nasdaq shed earlier gains in the last hour of trading to end down for the fourth day this week, despite some renewed investor interest in technology shares at bargain prices after the hefty sell-off.
The battered index showed signs of recovering, as buyers started cautiously putting their faith back into some technology stocks. But analysts warn that the Nasdaq has a long way to go before it turns significantly higher.
Still, HSBC's Griffiths says the sell-off, which has brought the Nasdaq to its lowest levels of the year, may spark bargain hunting in the days ahead. "I think that the big institutional players have the cash and will use it as a buying opportunity," he said.
Among the losers, Cisco Systems (CSCO: Research, Estimates) lost 3-7/8 to 61-1/8, Oracle (ORCL: Research, Estimates) shed 1-3/16 to71-15/16, and Microsoft (MSFT: Research, Estimates) fell 1/8 to 79-1/4.
A strong quarterly report from SunMicrosystems (SUNW: Research, Estimates) could boost tech stocks Friday. After the close of trading, Sun reported a third-quarter profit of $436.2 million, excluding one-time items, up 49 percent from last year's $291.9 million, well ahead of forecasts. Sun shares fell 2-1/4 to 77-3/4.
The Nasdaq is now off 26 percent from its March 10 record of 5,048. But Hugh Johnson, chief investment officer at First Albany, told CNN's In the Money that the recent Nasdaq sell-off may not be seen as a significant bear market in the future. (403K WAV) (403K AIFF).
"There is a lot of money out there that wants to be invested," said Barry Hyman, chief market strategist at Ehrenkrantz King Nussbaum. "Oversold markets start with short-term rallies and we're certainly due for a short-term rally."
Dow looking dismal
The Dow fell under selling pressure, led by profit-taking on financial stocks, which rose Wednesday after banking firm J.P. Morgan reported stronger-than-expected earnings.
J.P. Morgan (JPM: Research, Estimates) fell 5-3/16 to 131-1/2, American Express (AXP: Research, Estimates) shed 4-3/4 to 146, and Citigroup (C: Research, Estimates) lost 7/8 to 62-1/8.
Peter Cardillo, director of research at Westfalia Investments, said the Dow was also coming under technical selling pressure, after failing to rise above its technical resistance level of 11,104 Wednesday. Resistance is the point on a chart where selling interest is stronger than buying interest, and is typically used by traders who track trends with the use of charts.
Quarterly earnings reports from General Motors and General Electric were not enough to lift the Dow. "The real nitty-gritty is future revenue growth," Cardillo said.
General Motors (GM: Research, Estimates) fell 7/8 to 62-1/8 after posting stronger-than-expected first-quarter earnings of $2.80 a share, beating the predicted $2.66 a share and the year-earlier $2.68.
General Electric (GE: Research, Estimates) lost 6-3/8 to 150-3/8, although its quarterly profit soared to 78 cents a share from the year-earlier 65 cents a share, exceeding analysts' estimates by a penny.
(Click here for a comprehensive look at the day's corporate earnings) 
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