IBM will report net income of 98 cents a share on sales of $21.4 billion, up from three cents and $19.65 billion in the same period a year earlier, according to the average estimates of analysts polled by Thomson.

Investors showed a growing lack of faith in corporate America’s accounting practices today, sending the Dow Jones industrials tumbling nearly 250 points on worries that more companies might be vulnerable to bookkeeping scandals.