NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - A profit warning from tobacco products maker Philip Morris and negative brokerage notes on conglomerate General Electric and a host of chipmakers pushed stocks lower early Friday.

Around 10 a.m. ET, the Nasdaq composite (down 3.13 to 1218.48, Charts) declined. The Dow Jones industrial average (down 92.60 to 7904.52, Charts) and the Standard & Poor's 500 index (down 7.97 to 846.98, Charts) weakened as well.

Tobacco products maker Philip Morris (MO: down $4.72 to $38.01, Research, Estimates), a Dow component, warned late Thursday that full-year profits will come in lower than expected. For 2002, the company expects three percent-to-five percent growth, when analysts expect 20 percent, or earnings per share between $4.16 and $4.24 when analysts currently expect $4.82. The company blamed sluggish sales and higher spending on promotion.

Salomon Smith Barney and Merrill Lynch led the list of brokerages cutting profit estimates on the company and the rest of the tobacco sector following the warning.

Two brokerages issued negative notes on conglomerate General Electric (GE: down $1.30 to $25.09, Research, Estimates), a Dow component, citing concerns that the recovery of GE's short-cycle businesses will be delayed. Lehman Bros. downgraded the stock to "equal-weight" from "over-weight" and trimmed its fourth-quarter, 2002 and 2003 earnings per share estimates. Credit Suisse First Boston downgraded the stock to "neutral" from "outperform" and cut its 2002 and 2003 earnings per share estimates.

Earlier in the week, shares of GE had rallied after it reaffirmed its third-quarter earnings per share forecast of a profit of 41 cents.

Techs were also weaker after Goldman Sachs trimmed estimates on a number of communication chipmakers, including Advanced Micro Circuits (AMCC: up $0.04 to $3.21, Research, Estimates) and Broadcom (BRCM: down $0.58 to $11.28, Research, Estimates), citing prolonged weakness in telecom and some softness in personal computers, cable and enterprise. In addition, Wachovia Securities started its coverage of chip leader Intel (INTC: down $0.28 to $14.87, Research, Estimates) with a "hold" rating, saying that while the company is a clear leader, a decelerating growth rate could cap upside potential in the shares.

In the day's economic news, the Commerce Department said second-quarter gross domestic product was revised up to 1.3 percent annual growth, when economists surveyed by Briefing.com were expecting a 1.1 percent upward revision.

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index for September came in as expected and not revised much from the preliminary figure, down from the August reading.

European markets were mixed at midday, while Asian-Pacific stocks followed Wall Street higher, with Tokyo's Nikkei index closing 2.3 percent higher Friday.

Treasury prices rose, sending the 10-year note yield down to 3.74 percent from 3.81 percent late Thursday. The dollar gained against the yen, but was little changed versus the euro. Brent oil futures fell 17 cents to $28.72 a barrel in London, where gold was higher.