Wall Street Stocks End Sharply Lower

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, April 04, 2002

Wall Street Stocks End Sharply Lower

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Wall Street stocks ended sharply lower Wednesday, with the Dow and Nasdaq indexes falling to the lowest levels in a month, as investors were still worried about heightened tensions in the Middle East and corporate earnings after negative reports came from WorldCom and Adelphia.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 115.42 points, or 1.12 percent, to 10,198.29 after declining 48.99 points on Tuesday.

Broader stock indicators were sharply down. The technology heavy Nasdaq composite index dropped 20.05 points, or 1.11 percent, to 1,784.35. The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 11.36 points, or 1.00 percent, to 1,125.40.

The market fell in most of the session amid investors' fears that the violence between Israelis and Palestinians and oil price hikes in the international markets would hurt the economic recovery, while a couple of listed companies warned of their earnings.

The Institute of Supply Management reported that its index of non-manufacturing business activity fell to 57.3 in March from 58. 7 in February which was the highest level since November 2000. A reading above 50 means expansion in the nation's service sector.

Adelphia dropped 79 cents, or 6.7 percent, to 11.04 dollars as the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the company, and WorldCom declined 27 cents to 6.51 dollars after announcing its plan to cut 3,700 jobs, about 4 percent of its work force.

PeopleSoft slipped 40 cents to 24.76 dollars after tumbling 33 percent on Tuesday as it warned of continued weakness in corporate technology investment spending. IBM skid 1.05 dollars to 99.96 dollars, Microsoft lost 97 cents to 56.33 dollars, and Intel fell 16 cents to 29.87 dollars.

Among the blue chips, oil stocks eased after jumping in line with the higher oil prices, with ExxonMobil falling 69 cents to 43. 69 dollars, and ChevronTexaco declining 86 cents to 90.00 dollars. Caterpillar sank 1.48 dollars to 54.92 dollars after J.P. Morgan Chase downgraded its rating.

The NYSE index closed down 5.64 points at 590.68, the American Stock Exchange index sank 7.87 points to 907.98, and the Russell 2000 index of smaller companies eased 3.89 points to 496.60.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 5-to-3 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,164 up, 1,988 down and 171 unchanged.

NYSE trading volume increased to 1.21 billion shares from 1.17 billion in the previous session.

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Wall Street Stocks End Sharply Lower

Wall Street Stocks End Lower