Wall Street down amid dreary financial reports

NEW YORK, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Wall Street saw a weaker start Tuesday after Alcoa reported downbeat first-quarter earnings and Advanced Micro Devices issued a warning over revenue.

Alcoa reported late Monday a worse-than-forecast 52-percent drop in first-quarter profits due to higher energy costs and a weakening U.S. dollar.

Advanced Micro Devices, a rival of Intel, said it planned to cut its workforce by 10 percent after projecting a bigger-than-expected decline in first-quarter revenue. The company's sales for the first three months of 2008 fell 15 percent year-on-year.

Investors are also awaiting a U.S. National Association of Realtors report on pending home sales in February.

The Dow Jones index dropped 73.77 to 12,538.66. Broader indexes also declined. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 8.93 to 1,363.61 and the Nasdaq dipped 17.43 to 2,347.40.