NEW YORK -- Blue-chip shares rose sharply today after shaking off an early slide, but most stocks finished lower amid continuing worries about last week's rash of profit warnings. Dow up 90.88
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 90.88 points to 9,028.24 after erasing an early 81-point drop that put the measure almost 500 points below July 17's record of 9,337.97. The Dow lost slightly more than 400 points last week, a slide that was barely interrupted by Friday's 4-point gain.
Today's blue-chip recovery also wiped out a 43-point plunge by the Nasdaq composite index and a 12-point loss by the Standard & Poor's 500, but decliners outnumbered advancers by a 2-to-1 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 945 up, 2,076 down and 518 unchanged. NYSE volume totaled 618.33 million shares vs. 682.65 million on Friday. The S&P 500 rose 6.47 to 1,147.27, and the Nasdaq rose 2.27 to 1,933.26. The NYSE composite index rose 1.11 to 577.43, and the American Stock Exchange composite index fell 4.49 to 714.17.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 5.42 to 433.16.
The 30-year bond declined 13/32, or $4.06 per $1,000 bond, raising its yield to 5.71 percent. The dollar rose to 142.40 yen in late New York trading from 141.70 Friday.
Tokyo's Nikkei Stock Average fell 2.6 percent as Japanese traders cited concerns that outgoing Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto's likely replacement, Foreign Minister Keizo Obuchi, is ill-suited to push through tough reforms needed to reverse the sagging economy.
Boeing Co., one of the big names that stepped forward last week with discouraging earnings, led the early decline in the Dow.
Election worries
Associated Press
sink NikkeiTOKYO -- The Tokyo Stock Exchange's main index tumbled to its lowest level in nearly a month today amid worries that Japan's incoming administration won't be able to revive the economy. The dollar soared against the yen.
The benchmark 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average sank 417.53 points, or 2.55 percent, closing at 15,944.36 -- its first close below 16,000 since June 30. On Friday, the average had gained 173.88 points, or 1.07 percent.
Meanwhile, the dollar bought 142.34 yen in late afternoon, up 1.80 yen from late Friday in Tokyo and also above its late New York rate of 141.44 yen Friday.
Investors worried that outgoing Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto's likely replacement, Foreign Minister Keizo Obuchi, is ill-suited to push through tough reforms needed to reverse the sagging economy, traders said.
"We need someone to come in with a chain saw," said Louis Tseng, head of the Tokyo derivatives department at Jardine Fleming Securities Co. "Not only does (Obuchi) not have a chain saw, he may not even have a hacksaw."
Obuchi was elected to head the ruling Liberal Democratic Party after the stock market closed last Friday. That post almost certainly will enable him to succeed fellow LDP member Hashimoto. Parliament was expected to vote Obuchi into office on Thursday. Hashimoto announced he would resign after his party suffered a devastating setback in July 12 elections for the upper house.