Global Stocks: U.S. indices declined and weighed on Asian stocks

U.S. stock indices declined amid weak earnings reports from various companies.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 204.51 points, or 1.13%, to 17,895.9. The S&P 500 fell 9.58 points, or 0.45%, to 2,118.7. The Nasdaq Composite lost 9.25 points, or 0.18%, to 5,209.61.

Shares of Dow components IBM and United Technologies fell by 6.2% to $162.42 and by 7.6% to $102.06 respectively. IBM's profits dropped for the 13th consecutive quarter and missed analyst's expectations. So far, 70% of companies have reported earnings above analyst expectations.

In Asia this morning Hong Kong Hang Seng fell 1.15%, or 294.82 points, to 25,241.61. China Shanghai Composite Index declined 0.42%, or 16.89 point, to 4,000.79. The Nikkei dropped 1.03%, or 213.68 points, to 20,628.29.

Asian stocks declined after shares of several U.S. companies dropped amid lower-than-expected revenues.

Toshiba shares fell 1.7% after their 6% rise the day earlier when the details of an accounting scandal showed that an independent investigation had found the company overstating its earnings by a total of 151.8 billion yen ($1.22 billion) over the past six years.