Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Take the Money and Run -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: quote 007 who wrote (8462)	7/15/2002 1:29:34 PM
From: MulhollandDrive	Respond to of 17639

ding ding ding ding ding!! Stocks Resume Death Spiral NEW YORK, July 15, 2002 (CBS) Wall Street's dramatic selloff intensified Monday with investors seeing no reason to buy stocks while they await the release of second-quarter earnings results. The Dow Jones industrials fell more than 300 points, heading for their fifth triple-digit loss in six sessions. Corporate accounting scandals have spooked investors, making them mistrustful of earnings reports and outlooks for the remainder of the year. "For lack of a better description, you have as much full-fledged panic as you are going to get," said Tony Cecin, director of institutional trading at US Bancorp Piper Jaffray in Minneapolis. "The negative mentality is as pervasive as I have ever seen it, and I went through (the) `73 and `74 bear market." "The market tone remains nervous and nasty,'' said Alan Ackerman, a market strategist at brokerage Fahnestock & Co. ''There are just too many scandals surfacing almost at a rate of one a day. It looks like both a sustained economic and market rebound still appear to be further down the road.'' By noon, the Dow was down more than 300 points, having last week dropped 694.97, or 7.4 percent, in five straight losing sessions. It was the blue chips' largest weekly point decline since Sept. 21, when they dropped 1,369.70 following the terrorist attacks. The broader market was also lower. The Nasdaq composite index fell, as did the Standard & Poor's 500 index. Even positive economic news failed to cheer Wall Street Monday when the Commerce Department reported businesses raised their inventories by 0.2 percent. The increase, the first since January 2001 and better than the 0.1 percent analysts had expected, indicates that companies are confident enough about the economy to increase their stockpiles. Despite mounting evidence of an economic recovery, investors have been unloading stocks for eight weeks due to unceasing worries about the integrity of corporate accounting and earnings. The major indexes have not finished a week higher since mid-May. Bookkeeping concerns weighed on Duke Energy, which plunged $4.85, or nearly 20 percent, to $19.90 after being downgraded by Morgan Stanley, Salomon Smith Barney and Goldman Sachs. On Thursday, Duke said it had received subpoenas from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Houston office of the U.S. attorney for information related to its trading activities. Energy company El Paso Corp., which said it received a similar subpoena Friday from the Houston office of the U.S. attorney, declined 53 cents to $17.22. Disappointing earnings pulled other shares lower. Financial services company Northern Trust fell 58 cents to $39.01 after missing analysts' expectations by a penny a share. But losses were spread across sectors Monday, indicating investors' lack of confidence in the market as a whole. Procter & Gamble fell $2.08 to $81.55, IBM declined 83 cents to $68.38, and despite reaffirming its yearly outlook last week, General Electric stumbled 51 cents to $28.09. However, there were some gainers on Wall Street. Fannie Mae rose $1.75 to $72.38 after beating second-quarter earnings expectations by 3 cents a share. And, Coca-Cola advanced 12 cents to $51.17 on news it will adjust its accounting to report results more fairly. Coke will begin treating future stock options as employee compensation. Declining issues outnumbered advancers more than 3 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume came to 482.03 million shares, below the 526.69 million traded at the same point Friday. Analysts say the dollar, weakening against international currencies, is another drag on the market, and has prompted many foreign investors to exit U.S. equities. © MMII, CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved.