DOW JONES DROPS 152.42; INVESTORS MOVE TO PROTECT WEDNESDAY'S GAINS.Byline: Bruce Meyerson Associated Press Stocks fell sharply Thursday as money managers, just days away from the close of a brutal quarter, made sure to protect some of Wednesday's big gains. The Dow Jones industrial average Dow Jones Industrial Average The best known U.S. index of stocks. A price-weighted average of 30 actively traded blue-chip stocks, primarily industrials including stocks that trade on the New York Stock Exchange. finished 152.42 lower at 8,001.99 after nearly surrendering all of Wednesday's 257-point surge with an afternoon slide of 218. Broader stock indicators also suffered heavy losses. ``A little game of give-back, that's what I'm calling it. The market got way ahead of itself (on Wednesday),'' said Brian Belski, a market analyst at Dougherty Summit Securities in Minneapolis. ``Today reaffirms that there's still a heck of a lot of doubt out there.'' The Dow has lost nearly 1,000 points in the quarter that ends next Wednesday despite setting new highs as the three-month period began in July. A rapid retreat from the July 17 peak of 9,337.97 has suddenly reduced this year's gain from 18.1 percent to just 1.2 percent, or less than 100 points. On Wednesday, the Dow rose to its highest level in a month as Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan Alan Greenspan Dr. Greenspan is Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Dr. Greenspan also serves as Chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the Fed's principal monetary policymaking body. , in a rare burst of conversational clarity, signaled that the central bank will lower interest rates to combat a widening economic crisis overseas. Greenspan said no decision would be made until Tuesday's Fed policy meeting, but assured a Senate panel, ``I think we know where we have to go'' in trying to contain the financial turmoil, which has spread from Asia to Russia, and is now threatening Latin America. While the debate has largely shifted from when the Fed might cut rates to how much, ``the lack of a defining date is causing some people to rethink what happened yesterday and take some (money) off the table,'' said Belski. Predictably, Thursday's big decliners included some of Wednesday's big gainers. Among the Dow 30, J.P. Morgan fell $6.125 to $87, Travelers Group fell $3.3125 to $39.625, and General Electric fell $2.0625 to $81.75. Likewise, Microsoft fell $3.5 to $110.125 to lead the Nasdaq market lower. The Standard & Poor's 500 fell 23.37 to 1,042.72, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index Nasdaq Composite Index An index that indicates price movements of securities in the over-the-counter market. It includes all domestic common stocks in the Nasdaq System (approximately 5,000 stocks) and is weighted according to the market value of each listed fell 39.93 to 1,720.34. Declining issues outnumbered advancers by nearly a 2-to-1 margin on the New York Stock Exchange New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) World's largest marketplace for securities. The exchange began as an informal meeting of 24 men in 1792 on what is now Wall Street in New York City. , where composite volume totaled 952.04 million shares, down from Wednesday's hefty tally of 1.063 billion. The NYSE composite index NYSE Composite Index Measures all common stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange and four subgroup indexes: Industrial, Transportation, Utility, and Finance. The index tracks the change in market value of NYSE common stocks, adjusted to eliminate the effects of new listings fell 10.36 to 516.59, and the American Stock Exchange American Stock Exchange (AMEX) Stock exchange in the U.S. Originally known as “the Curb,” it began as an outdoor marketplace in New York City c. 1850. It moved indoors to its present location in the Wall Street area in 1921. composite index Composite Index A grouping of equities, indexes or other factors combined in a standardized way, providing a useful statistical measure of overall market or sector performance over time. Also known simply as a "composite". fell 3.78 to 642.30. The Russell 2000 index Russell 2000 Index An index measuring the performance of the 2,000 smallest companies in the Russell 3000 Index, which is made up of 3,000 of the biggest U.S. stocks. The Russell 2000 serves as a benchmark for small-cap stocks in the United States. of smaller companies fell 5.75 to 370.25. The prospect of an economic booster shot from the Fed energized stocks Thursday in Japan, where the battered Nikkei stock average Nikkei stock average Applies mainly to international equities. Price-weighted average of 225 stocks of the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange started on May 16, 1949. Japanese equivalent of the US Dow. jumped 3 percent. In addition to fueling domestic borrowing and spending, lower U.S. rates would help ensure that the United States continues to serve as an economic engine for the rest of the world. In Europe, Frankfurt's DAX index fell 1.1 percent, London's FT-SE 100 fell 0.9 percent, and Paris' CAC-40 fell 1.2 percent. |
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