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To: Bill Jackson who wrote (88033)	7/20/2002 8:47:35 PM
From: Richnorth	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116764

It is entirely plausible that "terrorist action" might have been partly responsible given the fact that Osama did vow to disrupt/destroy the U.S. economy. But I'd rather think that investors have lost confidence and are pulling their money out of the markets before things get a lot worse. By now the "excesses" and scandals of corporate America and Wall Street are striking fear in many investors worldwide as never before. I believe the upswings were due to the Plunge Protection Team that is desperately trying to keep things afloat for as long as possible to give the rosy impression that recovery may be just around the corner. Have you ever wondered why the U.S. Presidents from Nixon on have been kissing the Chinese ass?

To: Bill Jackson who wrote (88033)	7/20/2002 9:12:23 PM
From: Richnorth	Respond to of 116764

Stocks crash with corporate shocks Dow sinks 390 points after investors flee the market in wake of troubles at Sun Microsystems and Johnson & Johnson NEW YORK - Stocks crashed on Friday, plunging the Dow Jones industrial average by 390.23 points to lows last seen in 1998 as troubles at drug giant Johnson & Johnson and tech heavyweight Sun Microsystems sent investors fleeing. News of a probe into Johnson & Johnson's record-keeping sent stocks tumbling, to the dismay of traders. -- AP 'The mood is just horrible. There is one crisis after another,' said Mr Mike Driscoll, a listed trader at Bear Stearns. 'Anything people can point to as a negative, they are jumping all over it.' The Dow sank 390.23 points, or 4.64 per cent, at 8,019.26. The decline was the seventh-largest points decline in its history. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 33.81 points, or 3.84 per cent, to 847.75. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 37.88 points, or 2.79 per cent, at 1,319.07, to its lowest close since May 1997. A slew of corporate scandals and dim prospects for earnings have eaten away at the confidence of stock investors, who scrambled out of the market and helped make it the busiest day ever for the New York Stock Exchange. The Dow has fallen every session but one in the past two weeks, falling 14 per cent. Since the July 4 holiday, some US$1.5 trillion (S$2.6 trillion) in investor wealth has evaporated from the stock market. 'There's nothing but bad news out there, and when you see the cornerstones of the tech market, like Sun Microsystems, trading below US$5, it really takes the wind out of your sails,' said Mr Matt Holscher, head of Nasdaq trading for WR Hambrecht. 'It's water torture. It's brutal.' Investors have yanked cash out of mutual funds, worried that stock declines will further slice into personal wealth and retirement savings. Domestic equity funds have seen net redemptions for seven consecutive weeks, including a whopping US$10.7 billion outflow in the last week. 'Money managers are getting calls saying, 'Just liquidate my holdings. Raise cash,' ' said Mr Will Muggia, manager of the Touchstone Emerging Growth Fund. 'Part of the fear is that there's no place to hide. People are selling everything that hasn't gone down yet.' Johnson & Johnson was the talk of Wall Street after the drugmaker confirmed that federal regulators were probing allegations of fraudulent record-keeping at a Puerto Rico plant that makes an anaemia drug, one of the company's best-selling medicines. The stock ranked as the biggest loser in the Dow average, sinking almost 16 per cent to US$41.85. Few fund managers and analysts in Asia expect the Dow plunge to trigger a global rout on the scale of the day dubbed Black Monday 15 years ago. 'I expect Asian stocks to be weak but I don't expect them to collapse,' said Mr Yang Sy Jian, research director at UOB-Kay Hian Research in Singapore. 'Asia is a lot more resilient and we've seen how Asian economies have been recovering.' Said Mr Curtis Freeze, who manages US$130 million of Japanese small-company funds for Prospect Asset Management at Honolulu: 'Asia is decoupling from the rest of the world.' --Reuters, Bloomberg News