While you were sleeping: UPDATED Wall St follows oil down

Stocks fell with the price of oil dropping below $US30 a barrel amid concern about the global economy and the outlook for corporate profits.

US crude settled 5.5% lower at $US29.88 and Brent was down 4.4% at $US32.72 ahead of data expected to show US stockpiles still rising.

Wall Street tumbled. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 295.64 points, or 1.8%, to 16,153.54. The Nasdaq Composite Index shed 2.2% to 4516.95, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index retreated 1.9% to 1903.03.

The declines came on the heels of a second straight day of lower oil prices and a steep drop in quarterly profits from both Exxon Mobil and BP,, 

Exxon Mobil shares dropped 2.2% after the company reported its smallest profit in more than a decade, slashed its drilling budget and suspended share buybacks.

"While our financial results reflect the challenging environment, we remain focused on the business fundamentals, including project execution and effective cost management," chief executive Rex Tillerson said in a statement.

Declines in shares of Goldman Sachs and those of Chevron, down 4.2% and 3.4% respectively, led the drop in the Dow. Bucking the trend for the only gainer in the Dow was DuPont, which traded 4.2% higher.

"We still haven't broken the correlation between oil and equities and we are yet to find a bottom in oil prices," Jeff Carbone, co-founder of Cornerstone Financial Partners in Charlotte, North Carolina, told Reuters.

Alphabat topples Apple
Shares of Alphabet, Google's parent company, climbed to a record high, up 1.3%, after it posted earnings that pleased investors. Alphabet surpassed Apple as the world's most valuable company.

"Alphabet's core business looks very healthy," Josh Olson, an analyst at Edward Jones & Co, told Bloomberg. "That's going to build investors' confidence about the other bets they've been making."

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index ended the day with a 1.2% slide from the previous close, amid disappointing results from BP and UBS Group. Germany's DAX Index fell 1.8%, the UK's FTSE 100 Index shed 2.3%, while France's CAC 40 Index gave up 2.5%.

Shares of BP sank 8.7% in London after the company reported a net annual loss of $US6.5 billion and announced fresh job cuts.

"Should low oil prices prevail, they're a quarter or two away from having to cut the dividend, or divest some more assets," Jack Allardyce, an analyst at Cenkos Securities, told Reuters.

Meanwhile, global miners fell overnight in the wake of Standard & Poor's decision to downgrade BHP Billiton's credit rating. BHP shed 6.7% in London, with Anglo American, Glencore and Rio Tinto each ending at least 4.6% lower.

UPDATED for the Wall Street close (10am NZ time)

(BusinessDesk)