NEW YORK - Stocks fell sharply today, with another rocky day on Asian markets and another dire forecast from the technology group overshadowing a tame inflation report. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 99.65 points to close at 7,802.62. Dow off 99.65 on Asian worries
Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 5-to-3 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,125 up, 1,891 down and 452 unchanged. NYSE volume was extremely heavy again, totaling 651 million shares, the second straight session above 650 million and the fourth straight above 600 million.
Broad-market indicators also posted sizable losses, although the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index market only fell modestly despite the latest in a stream of profit warnings from Seagate Technologies, the leading manufacturer of computer disk drives.
The Standard & Poor's 500-stock list fell 7.96 to 956.04, and the NYSE composite index dropped 4.54 to 501.64. The Nasdaq composite index fell 6.15 to 1,555.55, and the American Stock Exchange composite index lost 6.73 to 667.56. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 4.08 to 425.71.
The price of the Treasury's main 30-year bond was up 20/32 point, or $6.25 per $1,000 in face value, by late afternoon, while its yield fell to 5.74 percent from 5.78 percent late yesterday. Prices and yields move in opposite directions.
For the second straight day, investors woke up to unsettling developments in Southeast Asia, this time in Indonesia, where financial markets plunged amid fears that the International Monetary Fund will yank back a $40 billion bailout package due to the Jakarta government's failure to implement required reform measures.
The Indonesian currency lost more than one-fourth of its value and the stock market dropped 12 percent. Wild rumors gripped that country, prompting panic-buying at supermarkets.
Indonesia's woes dragged down other Southeast Asian markets, with Hong Kong stocks sliding another 3 percent on top of yesterday's 6 percent dive; Singapore shares hitting a 51/2-year low; and Philippine shares sinking to a 41/2-year low.
U.S. investors were also greeted early on by Seagate Technology's announcement that it expects to report a substantial operating loss for the final three months of 1997.
Amid the continuing fixation with the Asian crisis and how much it is hurting U.S. companies, there was little reaction to two economic reports that ordinarily might have inspired a rally in the stock market.
The government reported this morning that prices paid to factories and other producers fell 0.2 percent in December, bringing the drop in wholesale prices for all of 1997 to 1.2 percent - the sharpest deflation since 1986.