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Strategies & Market Trends : VOLTAIRE'S PORCH-MODERATED -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: abstract who wrote (42104)	9/19/2001 1:27:57 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 65232

Stocks Sink, Uncertainty Grips Wall Street... Wednesday September 19, 1:08 pm Eastern Time By Denise Duclaux NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks sank in heavy midday trading on Wednesday as investors buckled under fears of a global recession, more violence and another hit to already fragile corporate earnings after last week's attacks on the United States. ``I think the market right now is seized by fear rather than rationality,'' said Stanley Nabi, managing director at Credit Suisse Asset Management, who believes the sell-off is overdone and the U.S. economy will recover next year. ``I was bearish until a few days ago and now I am very clearly bullish. Rationality dictates this is the time to step in and buy.'' Nervous investors kept up their selling in the third day of trading since the market reopened after hijacked planes leveled the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan on Sept. 11 -- leaving close to 6,000 people missing or dead and darkening the economic outlook. Wall Street ignored vows by legendary investor Warren Buffett and Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal earlier in the week that they would not sell any of their shares. Investors instead have pushed major market gauges down around 10 percent since the destruction. Almost 50 companies, including aerospace leader Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA - news), media company Viacom Inc. (NYSE:VIA - news) and photo giant Eastman Kodak Co. (NYSE:EK - news), have warned business would be hurt directly or indirectly by the attacks that toppled the twin towers and smashed part of the Pentagon near Washington. ``The world is so fluid with the news out there. How do you figure out what something is going to earn so you can figure out what you are going to pay for it?'' asked Donna Van Vlack, director of trading at Brandywine Asset Management, which oversees $7 billion. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) dropped 244.81 points, or 2.75 percent, to 8,658.59, after hitting its lowest close since mid-December 1998 on Tuesday. Dow member Eastman Kodak sank $3.98 to $35.85 after slashing its profit outlook as the attacks compounded economic weakness. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) fell 61.98 points, or 3.99 percent, to 1,493.10. The tech-rich index is now one-third of its all-time closing high of 5,048.62 hit on March 10, 2000. The broad Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) lost 25.82 points, or 2.5 percent, to 1,006.92. The S&P and the Nasdaq had their worst close since mid-October 1998 a day ago. The Nasdaq has lost nearly 12 percent, the Dow has slumped 10 percent and the S&P 500 has surrendered about 7.8 percent since the market resumed trading on Monday after its longest shutdown since the Great Depression. Losers outpaced winners by about a ratio of 4 to 1 on the Big Board and a ratio of 3 to 1 on the Nasdaq. More than 1 billion shares traded hands on the Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange, about twice the average volume at this point. Strategists pinned some of the volatility on Friday's ''triple witching,'' the simultaneous expiration of stock index futures, stock index options and stock options. Others blamed much of the market's three-day drop on a pervasive sense of loss on Wall Street. Van Vlack said she will attend a memorial service later on Wednesday for a Cantor Fitzgerald employee lost in the attack. ''If you have been through a loss in your personal life, it just takes a while to shake it off and get your bearings,'' she said. ''I think that is a lot of what is going on in the market place too.'' Media conglomerate Viacom Inc., owner of the CBS television network, shed 90 cents to $31. The company said its earnings for the year would be lower than expected as non-stop news coverage of last week's attacks on the United States led to higher costs and a significant loss of advertising revenues. Boeing Co. reversed early losses to gain 25 cents to $33.39, offering support for the Dow. The aerospace giant said it would lay off as many as 30,000 workers in its commercial jet unit in anticipation of a steep drop in orders. Diversified manufacturer Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE:HON - news), off $2.61 at $25.90, and credit card giant American Express Co. (NYSE:AXP - news), down $1.28 at $26.10, extended Tuesday's slide on their warnings of weaker earnings in the wake of the attacks. ImClone Systems Inc. (NasdaqNM:IMCL - news) rallied $2.17 to $52.18 in heavy trading on the Nasdaq. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY - news), off 87 cents to $55.62, agreed to a $1 billion deal in which it will take a 20 percent stake in the biotech firm. Finnish telecom equipment maker Nokia (NYSE:NOK - news) added 78 cents to $16 after British bank HSBC upgraded the mobile phone giant to ``add'' from ``hold''. ``The dilemma for investors is that the Fed stimulus and government resolve makes more certain that we are going to have an economic recovery -- but it may be further out,'' said John Davidson, chief investment officer at Circle Trust Co., which has $500 million under management. ``There is the immediate negative impact of the loss and the disturbing of consumer confidence.''