Wall Street fell in early trading today after Bank of America Corp. missed analysts’ earnings expectations and provided investors with further evidence of how the credit crisis has hurt the economy.

BofA, considered a bellwether for the banking industry because it has branches across the country, said “significant dislocations” in the capital markets caused third-quarter results to fall 32%. The disappointing results follows similar reports from other financial companies including Citigroup Inc. and Washington Mutual Inc.

Banks and brokerages have been hurt during the third quarter in the fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis. As people with weak credit defaulted on loans at an alarming rate, it triggered a global aversion for risk that led the credit markets to freeze up.

Treasurys rallied and the dollar fell to a new record low against the euro after a government report showed that the number of newly laid off workers filing claims for unemployment benefits shot up last week by the largest amount since February. The Labor Department’s report was far worse than economists expected, and signaled that the labor market could be starting to weaken from a downturn in housing and the global credit turmoil.

In midmorning trading, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 51.95, or 0.37%, to 13,840.59.

Broader indexes were also lower. The Standard & Poor’s index fell 8.41, or 0.55%, to 1,532.83, while the Nasdaq composite index was down 20.75, or 0.74%, at 2,771.92.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves inversely to prices, fell to 4.51% from 4.55% late yesterday. Treasury prices rose again after rallying sharply yesterday amid growing signs of trouble in the housing sector.