Unable to Escape Nagging Worries, Market Skids Into Weekend

Low volume continued as rate concerns and a general lack of upside catalysts whacked major indices.

Author:: Tara Murphy
Publish date:: May 19, 2000 5:20 PM EDT

It was a typical session in these not so typical times. Trading volume remained light today, with heavy-walleted investors unsure where to spend their dough. Even the Old Economy blue-chips, which handled the Fed's 50-basis-point hike in stride, were up for sale, as future-interest-rate uncertainty continued plaguing the market.

Combine a 50-basis-point hike, cautionary

comments on future rate increases and a double

expiration and you have a recipe for a selloff. Add some hawkish comments from the some government insiders, and you're almost certain of a red-ribbon plunge. Yesterday,

New York Fed

President William McDonough said during a speech at the

New Jersey Business Conference

that the U.S. economy was showing signs of strain and that the Fed would have to keep a careful eye on inflation. Could the Fed be setting the stage for another 50-basis-point hike in June, at the next

FOMC meeting?

Investors thought so, and cashed in shares that they held even in the wake of Tuesday's half-point hike. "There's not a lot of activity and conviction," said Jack Ablin, managing director at

Colonial Asset Management

. "Everyone is sitting on the sidelines and we don't see a catalyst before the next FOMC meeting, unless there is some weaker-than-expected economic data."

The

Dow Jones Industrial Average finished off the day down 150.43, or 1.4%, to 10,626.85. Although tech components

Hewlett-Packard

(HWP)

and

Intel

(INTC) - Get Report

were smothering the index, its financials

J.P. Morgan

(JPM) - Get Report

, off 3.1%, and

American Express

(AXP) - Get Report

, down 2.9%, were not lending any air either.

The

American Stock Exchange Broker/Dealer Index

was slammed 17.66, or 3.7%, to 455.98.

Merrill Lynch

(MER)

, which had a strong run during yesterday's session, fell back 5 1/2, or 5%, to 103 9/16.

But in the face of a selloff, there's always someone doing a little bargain-hunting. According to Ablin, who put some money to work in the chip and retail sectors, investors can shop for bargains in the sectors that have been hit the hardest.

"We draw a line in the sand and pick levels where we want to own stocks," he said. "If it crosses the line, we buy. We try to take a lot of emotion out of the stock. This is a market where you really just need to have a lot of patience."

Elsewhere on the

New York Stock Exchange, the drug stocks were one sector that wasn't succumbing to the day's selloff. The

American Stock Exchange Pharmaceutical Index

ended on the upside by 0.7%, with gains from

Merck

(MRK) - Get Report

and

Eli Lilly

(LLY) - Get Report

For the majority of stocks, the session was pretty from the get-go, as sellers came in to smack the Nasdaq even lower than it has been in recent sessions. "It's an ugly day," said Peter Blatchford, a trader at

Miller Tabak

. "With the expiration, we had some buying which made the opening a little less painful but then there was selling."

The Nasdaq declined 148.10, or 4.2%, to 3390.61.

In Nasdaq trading, the semiconductor index was creamed, with a 6% loss from

Rambus

(RMBS) - Get Report

and an almost 7% decline in

Lattice Semiconductor

(LSCC) - Get Report

The

Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index

slipped 5.2%.

TheStreet.com Internet Sector

index was bludgeoned 59.06, or 6.7%, to 824.50.

Yahoo!

(YHOO)

and

eBay

(EBAY) - Get Report

chalked up losses.

Brian Gilmartin, portfolio manager for

Trinity Asset Management

, suggested that the upcoming congressional vote regarding free trade with China could be a dark cloud hanging over growth stocks. "A no vote could hurt American exports to China. You want to see permanent trading benefits extended to the country because they could be a very large consumer of U.S technology."

The broad

S&P 500 fell 30.26, or 2.1%, to 1406.95, while the small-cap

Russell 2000 slipped 11.25, or 2.3%, to 479.70.