Shares of International Business Machines Corp. dove 5.4% in premarket trading Thursday, in the wake of the technology company’s disappointing third-quarter results, and was by far the biggest drag on the Dow Jones Industrial Average ahead of the open. The implied price decline in IBM’s stock would shave about 51 points off the Dow’s price, while Dow futures shed 98 points or 0.3%, with 23 of 30 components trading lower. The next biggest Dow decliner in the premarket was Caterpillar Inc.’s stock, which slipped 1.1% and implied a 15-point weight on the Dow’s price. The biggest gainer was Dow Inc.’s stock , which rose 1.5%, and would add about 6 points to the Dow’s price, after the chemical and specialty materials company beat third-quarter profit and revenue forecasts.
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