Stocks resumed their slide toward a double-dip recession after Wall Street’s earnings parade showed signs of a weak start.

Traders dumped Alcoa, which opens the new quarterly profits season, in anticipation of poorer results. Shares fell 1.5 percent to $7.79, and after the closing bell, Alcoa reported its second straight quarterly loss.

Analysts expect earnings to fall 37 percent among companies on the Standard & Poor’s 500 index.

The Dow Jones industrials fell 186.29, or 2.34 percent, to 7,789.56. The S&P 500 dropped 2.39 percent, or 19.93, to 815.55. The Nasdaq lost 2.81 percent to 1,561.61, off 45.10.

The sell-off was the second consecutive losing session to chip away at the Dow’s rally in the past two weeks.

Financial stocks weakened, with JPMorgan Chase off 3.4 percent to $27.25. Apple fell 2.9 percent to $115.00 and Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, dropped 6.3 percent to $59.95.