Dow Down 131.56 at 7,920.12
NEW YORK (AP) -- The Dow Jones industrials tumbled below the 8,000 mark, bringing the market down to last year's levels in a sign that Wall Street hasn't hit bottom despite last week's landslide.
At noon on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 131.56 at 7,920.12. If the diving blue-chip average doesn't reverse course by the end of the day the it would close below the 8,000 mark for the first time since Jan. 30.
With this morning's losses, the Dow gave up the last of this year's gains. It ended 1997 at 7,908.25. The last time the Dow closed below 8,000 was on Jan. 30.
Last week the Dow plunged 481.97 points, or 5.6 percent, taking a four-digit drop below its July 17 record of 9,337.97 in the biggest percentage drop for a calendar week since 1989.
Broad-market indicators also were sharply lower, amid news of a parliamentary showdown in Russia and North Korea's apparent firing of a missile over part of Japan.
In Russia, the communist opposition said today it would block the approval of Boris Yeltsin's choice for prime minister, despite Russia's growing economic crisis. Acting Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin warned Russia was on the edge of chaos and pleaded with lawmakers to approve the formation of a government to tackle the crisis.
Russian and Japanese economic troubles have roiled Wall Street, prompting fears of lower corporate profits and a global economic slowdown.
In other news from the East that troubled Wall Street, North Korean fired a ballistic missile over northeastern Japan today that landed in the Pacific Ocean, according to news reports quoting Japan's Defense Agency.
The day's rout hammered technology stocks, driving the technology-laden Nasdaq composite index was down 65.57 at 1,591.41. America Online (NYSE:AOL - news) was down 7 3/4 at 88 1/2 and Lucent Technologies (NYSE:LU - news) was down 7 15/16 at 73 1/16. Drug makers also took a beating, with Merck & Co. (NYSE:MRK - news) down 6 1/8 at 121 1/4, Warner (NYSE:WLA - news)-Lambert down 6 3/4 at 67 3/4, and Pfizer down 5 at 96 5/8.
Twenty-three of the 30 Dow industrial stocks lost ground, with Coca (NYSE:KO - news)-Cola down 4 3/8 at 63 3/89.
In the broader market, the Standard & Poor's 500 index was down 23.99 at 1,003.15.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a decisive 3-to-1 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 365.54 million shares, below Friday's midday pace.
The NYSE composite index was down 10.78 at 501.34, and the American Stock Exchange composite index was down 5.70 at 596.88.
Overseas, Tokyo's Nikkei stock average rose 1.4 percent, while Frankfurt's DAX index fell 3.2 percent and London's FT-SE 100 slid 1.5 percent.
biz.yahoo.com
We've been down as much as 180 points on the DOW. The NASDAQ has been awful.
quote.yahoo.com
Should I stop looking?
Regards, Jeff
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