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Tuesday, Aug. 4, 1998
Another late selloff sinks Dow 96 points to 8,786.74
Stock drop starts 3rd week with lowest finish since June
Associated Press
NEW YORK - Stocks slid into the close again Monday after several halfhearted attempts to halt a steep downturn that's now entering a third week.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 96.55 to 8,786.74, about 550 points below the closing record of 9,337.97 set on July 17 and the lowest finish since June 22.
The barometer of 30 big companies actually bobbed into positive territory twice during the day, but quickly pulled back as jittery investors used any hint of strength as a chance to take some money off the table. On Friday, the Dow slid 143 points, with most of that loss coming over the final hour of trading.
``It's not a happy pattern to see selling at close,'' said Ronald J. Hill, investment strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., suggesting that strength in bonds and continued signs of bargain-hunting suggest the market is ``building toward a pretty good bottom.''
Broader stock indicators also posted hefty losses Monday, with smaller-company shares continuing a rapid descent toward what may soon be classified as a bear market in that sector.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 6.39 to 413.36, a one-year low and nearly 16 percent below the April 21 peak of 491.41.
A bear market is typically defined as a 20 percent decline. Despite the sharp retreat of recent weeks, big-company gauges such as the Dow and S&P 500 are only 6.2 percent from record highs and still boast gains of more than 10 percent for 1998.
``The smaller stocks are dragging things down,'' Hill said. ``A sign of a healthy market is when everything is moving to new highs. Large-cap stocks will continue to lead the parade, but it's important that smaller caps participate.''
The market's powerful summer rally cooled off in mid-July amid signs that the economy and company profits won't improve in the second half of the year as hoped.
Notably, in the first broad reading of July's economic activity, a national association of factory executives reported Monday that manufacturing activity slowed for the second month in a row, reflecting the pinching effects of the Asian fiscal crisis and the General Motors strikes.
The Nasdaq composite index fell 21.29 to 1,851.10.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 2-to-1 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, where composite volume totaled 740.58 million shares, down from 763.70 million on Friday.
The Standard & Poor's 500 fell 8.00 to 1,112.67, the NYSE composite index fell 4.38 to 560.89, and the small-company dominated American Stock Exchange composite index fell 8.39 to 697.87.
Overseas, Tokyo's Nikkei stock average fell 1.3 percent, Frankfurt's DAX index fell 2.7 percent and London's FT-SE 100 fell 0.5 percent.Post your comments about local news eventsFront Page || Main Index || News || Business || Texas || South Texas Outdoors || Birdwatching || Sports || Entertainment || Selena || Education || South Texas Attractions || World Wide Web