(Reuters] – Wall Street was led lower by tech-heavy Nasdaq on Tuesday, with a 3% slump and then briefly falling 2% as nervousness ahead of megacap growth earnings and technology company earnings increased concerns over slower global growth and a tighter Federal Reserve.[.N]

MARKET REACTION:

* STOCKS: Dow down 1.54%, S&P 500 down 1.80%, Nasdaq down 2.89%

* BONDS: The yield on benchmark 10-year notes fell to 2.7663%. [US/]

* : The VIX was up 13.8% at 30.62

COMMENTS:

TIM GHRISKEY, SENIOR PORTFOLIO STRATEGIST, INGALLS & SNYDER, NEW YORK

“We’re in a turbulent environment, you see these mini crashes and you see mini rallies. Our moods seem to fluctuate between up and down. It’s earnings season, obviously. To me, the earnings look positive so far. However, there have been some flaws in certain revenues. JetBlue is one example. These are very low revenues in comparison to what was expected. Earnings look excellent, take a look at GE or 3M. Excellent earnings and good revenue, both exceeding expectations. However, investors could be skeptical about some of the earnings.

“I haven’t heard anything else that is going on, or I don’t see anything else. So, it’s one of  those perplexing days when there isn’t a really good answer for what’s going on.

“The only other thing I see is that bond yields are down. The yields of bonds are falling, whether there’s a slight inversion right now, or more, based on the two year out.  Anything that smells like inversion, or looks like the start of an inversion, has people worried about a recession.”

THOMAS HAYES, CHAIRMAN, GREAT HILL CAPITAL LLC, NY “There’s a lot of anxiety ahead of the earnings which are coming up Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday just because if they don’t hold up, then there’s nothing left to hold up the market… people are just worried before results and they’re trying to take some chips off the table because if they are bad earnings or bad guidance, it could take the market lower. This is going be a case of sell the rumor buy the news.”

“Of course, people have priced in a lot of low expectations. Expectations are low because they’re entering the printing very, very weak. It may be a very small hurdle to overcome, with inline or slightly better results enough to cause the next leg of the rally.”