NEW YORK CITY – Stocks are falling sharply on Wall Street as big technology and industrial companies take heavy losses.

The Dow Jones industrial average plunged as much as 600 points Tuesday, weighed down by sharp drops in Caterpillar, a heavy equipment maker, and manufacturer 3M.

Caterpillar warned of weaker profits and 3M, like several other manufacturers reporting their quarterly results, said it was seeing higher costs for raw materials.

Mining company Freeport-McMoRan plunged 16 percent.

Google parent Alphabet sank 5.3 percent after reporting a spike in spending.

The Dow was down 540 points, or 2.2 percent, at 23,918. It was down as much as 619 earlier.

The S&P 500 index lost 44 points, or 1.7 percent, to 2,626. The Nasdaq gave up 144 points, or 2 percent, to 6,984.

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