Politics,
global turmoil
wag the Dow

The blue-chip index falls 283
before recovering to
a 77.76-point loss

NEW YORK -- Stocks tumbled today, with the Dow Jones industrial average falling as much as 283 points as investors reacted to turmoil in markets and new political tensions around the world.

The Dow Jones industrial average finished the day down 77.76 at 8,533.65, recovering from its earlier lows but still extending the 103 point loss from the previous two days.

Including today's losses, the blue-chip barometer is now down about 8.6 percent from its record high of 9,337.97 on July 17.

Broad-market indicators also fell today. Among the hardest hit was the Nasdaq composite index, which was hurt by a selloff in technology stocks.

An indication of the nervousness on world financial markets is the rush today to buy U.S. treasury bonds, a traditional haven in times of unrest. Yields on 30-year Treasury bonds, which go down as prices go up, today dropped below 5.5 percent for the first time in the two decades such bonds have been issued.

Stocks fell following a steep decline in share prices in overseas. Investors worry that financial troubles in Russia, Asia and Latin America will hurt the U.S. economy and cut into corporate profits in coming months.

Frankfurt Germany's DAX index closed down by 5.9 percent, and London and Paris exchanges each had losses of more than 3 percent for their main indexes.

Russia this week devalued its ruble and suspended debt payments, and many investors fear that Russian banks may fail. Today, Japan's Okura & Co. filed for bankruptcy and the Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan Ltd. announced a broad restructuring, raising concerns that Japan will not soon climb from its financial crisis.

In addition, investors are watching Latin America to see if struggling nations, like Vene-zuela, will devalue their currencies. Venezuela's main stock index lost 8.43 percent today.

Trading was halted for 30 minutes at the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange in Brazil, South America's largest stock market, when the main index plunged 10 percent. The market later regained some of its losses.

Adding to today's volatility was concerns over the fallout from yesterday's U.S. military air strikes in Afghanistan and Sudan. Russian president Boris Yeltsin and several Muslim nations denounced the strike.

U.S. financial stocks, which have considerable exposure to the various fiscal crises overseas, fell sharply today. J.P. Morgan, American Express and Travelers Group Inc. were all down for the day.

Decliners led advancers by a 3-to-1 margin on the New York Stock Exchange today, with 808 up, 2,328 down and 401 unchanged. NYSE volume totaled 723.93 million shares vs. 616.03 million yesterday.

The Standard & Poor's 500 fell 10.42 to 1,081.18, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index sank 34.84 to 1,797.61. The NYSE composite index fell 5.40 to 540.82, and the American Stock Exchange composite index dropped 11.72 to 651.88. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 6.09 to 395.64.