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3M Is Worst-Performing Dow Stock as Billions in Legal Costs Loom

  • Stock’s 14% first-quarter drop is biggest decline in the DJIA
  • Legal woes, weak view drive record valuation spread with S&P
3M Global Headquarters in Maplewood, Minnesota.

3M Global Headquarters in Maplewood, Minnesota.

Photographer: Ben Brewer/Bloomberg
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3M Co.’s first-quarter plunge is scaring off even the bravest of dip buyers as its crippling legal troubles continue to haunt the century-old industrial giant.  

Shares of the company — whose products encompass everything from auto parts to Post-it notes — are down 14% in the first quarter, making them the biggest decliners in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. And only 51 of the 503 companies in the S&P 500 Index have had worse performances than 3M this year.