Markets
With confidence badly shaken by the selling in Treasuries and tension high ahead of next week's
Federal Open Market Committee
meeting next Tuesday, stocks closed not too far from their session lows. It was a very bad day.
The
Dow Jones Industrial Average
fell 193.87, or 2%, to 10,913.32, while the broader
S&P 500
dropped 29.76, or 2%, to 1337.80.
The basic rule for the day was the higher the multiple the higher the fall. While the damage on the value and cyclical side of things was limited, traditional growth areas like tech and drugs were hurt badly. The tech-tumescent
Nasdaq Composite Index
fell 54.13, or 2%, to 2527.87, while the
American Stock Exchange Pharmaceutical Index
fell 11.90, or 3%, to 369.50.
Those Uber-growth issues, the .coms, also took their lumps.
TheStreet.com Internet Sector
index fell 12.17, or 2%, to 629.53.
The small-cap
Russell 2000
fell 7.71, or 2%, to 443.13.
The 30-year bond fell 2 6/32 to 90 24/32, lifting the yield up to 5.92%.
Major European indices finished lower, with London's
FTSE
having gotten the worst of it, off about 2.4%. Asian markets slumped overnight, with Hong Kong's
Hang Seng
slipping 198.15 to 12,855.52. Tokyo's
Nikkei
dropped 40.86 to 16,810.39 as Governor
Masaru Hayami
said the
Bank of Japan
will maintain its easy money policy until deflationary concerns have subsided.
For more markets action and news, click
here.
Companies
Boeing
(BA) - Get Report
is cutting between 6,500 and 7,000 jobs at its St. Louis military aircraft plant because of a dearth of orders for F-15 fighter jets. The cuts come after
Lockheed Martin
(LMT) - Get Report
last month won a $3.5 billion contract to supply Greece with F-16s, and Israel postponed a $2.5 billion F-15 order two weeks ago.
Dutch agricultural and construction equipment maker
New Holland
is in merger talks with Wisconsin-based
Case
(CSE)
,
The Wall Street Journal
reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Personal effects and nutrition product marketer
Nu Skin Enterprises
(NUS) - Get Report
filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission
for a secondary offering of 10 million Class A common shares, the proceeds going to the family of company founder and Chairman Blake Roney.
Baby Bell
U S West
(USW)
is lifting a bit after
CNBC
reported that it has held merger talks with undersea fiber-optics firm
Global Crossing
(GBLX)
. U S West rose 2 1/4 to 62 1/4, while Global Crossing advanced 15/16 to 61 3/8.
For more news on companies and stocks, click
here.
Tech
@Home
(ATHM) - Get Report
and
Microsoft
(MSFT) - Get Report
last night set a pact to speed up the deployment of broadband Internet services. Under the deal, @Home will use the
Windows NT
operating system in its
@Home Solutions
network, which brings high-speed Internet access to small markets.
Networking gear maker
3Com
(COMS)
is rumored to be a takeover target, according to
Business Week's
Inside Wall Street column. The magazine identified possible bidders as
Ericsson
(ERICY)
and
Lucent
(LU)
.
For more tech news and commentary, click
here.
General News
The
Labor Department
released its
Consumer Price Index
, which unexpectedly rose 0.7% for the month of April, 0.3 percentage points above expectations and up from the previous month's 0.2% increase. The core rate, which excludes food and energy costs, jumped 0.4%, 0.2 percentage points above the forecast and up from last month's 0.1% jump.
NATO
war planes knocked out electrical power in several districts of Yugoslavia's three largest cities: Belgrade, Nis and Novi Sad. Meanwhile, Yugoslav media claimed that NATO cluster bombs killed as many as 100 civilians in the village of Korisa, Kosovo. The alliance said it was looking into the report.
International
World Bank
President
James Wolfensohn
said the bank will not approve new loans to Russia until the dust settles from Russian President
Boris Yeltsin's
firing of his government two days ago. In the balance hangs a $4.5 billion
International Monetary Fund
loan and another $1.85 billion due from the World Bank.
Nissan Motor
(NSANY)
set plans to spin off its auto transmission development business in July to a new subsidiary called
Transtechnology
.
For more international news and commentary, click
here.
Elsewhere
After seven seasons,
General Electric
(GE) - Get Report
unit
NBC
has pulled the plug on its critically acclaimed
Homicide: Life on the Street
. The last episode will run next Friday.
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