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Strategies & Market Trends : Galapagos Islands -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jorj X Mckie who wrote (34463)	3/26/2003 12:28:39 PM
From: Rainy_Day_Woman	Respond to of 57110

Wednesday March 26, 12:02 pm ET NEW YORK (CBS) - Most stocks trekked lower Wednesday as a blow to President Bush's bid to eliminate the double taxation of dividends gave buyers reason to "pause," but strength in retailers and select technology sectors helped pare losses by midday. In addition, a decline in February durable goods orders and new home sales and overnight comments by President Bush that the war in Iraq "is far from over" worked to weigh on the broad market. Dividend tax cut in doubt Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassely's said Wednesday that President Bush's bid to eliminate the double taxation of dividends "may be out the window" unless the Senate reversed a $350 million tax cut limit. The senator said his panel "can make very good income tax policy" within the $350 billion limit, but said it seems "practically impossible to do anything" on dividends. Durable order, home sales decline The Commerce Department said durable goods orders for February fell 1.2 percent, as demand for computers, electronics, metals, aircraft and cars all declined. Orders in the non-defense capital goods sector declined 5.2 percent, hurt by a 26 percent slide in commercial aircraft orders. In addition, January's report was revised lower, to a 1.9 percent gain from the 2.9 percent gain originally reported. "The drop in durable goods orders in February was not as pronounced as expected, but this surprise was more than offset by a sizeable downward revision to the January figure," said Jade Zelnik, chief economist at RBC Greenwich Capital. She said the two-month trend points to "extremely sluggish activity" in the manufacturing sector. The Commerce Department added that sales of new homes for February fell 8.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 854,000. The Northeast, particularly hard hit by severe winter weather, witnessed a 37 percent decline