INVESTORS FIND MANY REASONS TO SELL; APPLE'S ANNOUNCEMENT UNSETTLES THE MARKETS.Byline: Kenneth N. Gilpin The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times Stock prices were pummeled Tuesday, pulled down by a further slide in the value of the dollar against the yen, warnings about third-quarter earnings and worries about the earthquake in Taiwan. Investors, who have been nervous about the market for months, had many reasons to sell equities before the trading session even began. After the close of trading Monday, Apple Computer said revenue and earnings would fall well short of expectations in the current quarter. Later, the Bank of Japan indicated it would not move to an easier monetary policy, a step that might have taken some steam out of the recent rise in the yen against the dollar. ``Handy triggers for a selloff sell·off n. The sale or disposal of a relatively large number of stocks, bonds, or commodities that often causes a sharp decline in prices. Noun 1. were in place before the open,'' said William Meehan William (Billy) Meehan was the de facto leader of the Philadelphia Republican Party for the second half of the twentieth century, though he formally held a title of "of counsel". , chief market analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald. Currency-related worries deepened a bit later, when the government reported that July's trade deficit was a record $25.2 billion. Major market indexes were all pounded. 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. plunged 225.43 points, or 2.08 percent, to 10,598.47. Hewlett-Packard, Goodyear Tire, J.P. Morgan, IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) and General Electric were all big losers. In fact, just two of the 30 stocks that make up the blue-chip index were able to eke out gains. Broader market measures also fared poorly. Led by declines in big stocks like Microsoft, Lucent Technologies, Intel and Dell Computer, the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index fell 27.95 points, or 2.09 percent, to 1,307.58. The 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 , which came close to setting a new record on Monday, dropped 65.05 points, or 2.25 percent, to 2,821.10, pulled down by stocks like Apple Computer and Qualcomm. ``The buyers' strike continues,'' said Thomas Galvin, chief investment strategist at Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette. ``Anxiety about the dollar, and uncertainty about the Fed and Y2K See Y2K problem and Y2K compliant. Y2K - Year 2000 , have given people reasons to sell.'' According to some traders, without the announcement from Apple the market might have fared better. ``Pardon the metaphor, but Apple was the core of the market's problems,'' said Michael Clark, head of U.S. stock trading at Credit Suisse First Boston Credit Suisse First Boston was originally the trading name of the Financière Crédit Suisse-First Boston, a London-based 50-50 investment banking joint venture formed in 1978 between the First Boston Corporation and Credit Suisse. . ``All of the other things you have been trying to shrug off, from rising interest rates and a weaker dollar to the earthquake in Taiwan, take on more importance when a leader in the narrow technology sector says something disappointing.'' Apple, a NASDAQ composite component, fell $9.8125, to $69.25. Other computer makers also traded sharply lower. IBM dropped $3, to $127.25. Hewlett-Packard fell $5.0625, to $99.375. Dell Computer declined $2.375, to $46.50. However, the rise in the yen and the bigger-than-expected monthly trade deficit numbers also played an important role. |
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