Stocks plummeted in the United States yesterday as investors sold heavily amid continuing worries about higher interest rates and the strength of the dollar.

A Microsoft executive's warning that technology stocks are overvalued robbed the market of a big source of strength. At the close of trading on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 205.48 points, or 1.9 per cent, at 10,318.59. That brought the Dow's decline over the past three sessions to 505.31 points.

Broader stock indicators also fell steeply. The Nasdaq composite index suffered one of its worst declines in history. The Standard & Poor's 500 fell 30.10 to 1,280.41, and Nasdaq fell 107.66 to 2,750.50.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a five-to-two margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 2,186 down, 900 up and 475 unchanged. NYSE volume totalled 873.98 million shares.