NEW YORK - Stocks fell modestly today, giving the market its third straight losing session amid renewed worry about how much Asia's economic crisis will hurt U.S. companies in 1998. Dow drops 30
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 30.14 points to 7,700.74 despite swinging from an early 46-point gain to an 88-point loss during the session. The blue-chip barometer has now lost 172 points in three sessions after gaining 119 points Tuesday. The Dow is down 207.51, or 2.6 percent, for 1998.
Decliners led advancers by a 12-to-7 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,105 up, 1,873 down and 473 unchanged. NYSE volume was 627.30 million shares, the 13th time in 15 sessions this year that more than 600 million shares have changed hands.
Broad-market indicators were also pressured again today by profits worries, as well as concerns over whether the latest charges of sexual improprieties by President Clinton will impair government initiatives at home and abroad.
"The market hates uncertainty," said Alfred E. Goldman, director of market analysis, A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. in St. Louis. "When the word impeachment is used, investors worry about what that will mean for the economy."
The Standard & Poor's 500-stock list fell 5.45 to 957.59, and the NYSE composite lost 3.11 to 500.68. The Nasdaq index fell 0.56 to 1,575.95, and the American Stock Exchange composite index fell 3.98 to 661.63. The Russell 2000 index dropped 1.40 to 424.80.
The price of the Treasury's main 30-year bond was off 1 5/16 point, or $10.31 per $1,000 in face value, by late afternoon, while its yield rose to 5.96 percent from 5.87 percent late yesterday. Prices and yields move in opposite directions.