Nasdaq falls for
7th consecutive day

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By Lisa Singhania
Associated Press

NEW YORK >> Wall Street punished technology stocks for a seventh straight session today on fears the sector's worst days are still ahead. The selloff sent the Nasdaq composite index to its first close below 2,000 since April.

The pessimism spread to the broader market, limiting the modest gains achieved by a handful of manufacturing and retail stocks. Even better-than-expected results from Oracle after the market closed weren't expected to cheer weary investors.

"This is a complete abdication of anything having to do with technology and the overlapping market can't deal with this unrelenting selling," said Larry Wachtel, market analyst at Prudential Securities. "Nortel, JDS Uniphase ... all the heroes of yesteryear are being decimated because people are worried about when their earnings are going to improve."

The Nasdaq composite index closed down 39.80 at 1,988.63, its worst finish since April 16, when the index closed at 1,909.57.

The Nasdaq hasn't fallen for seven straight sessions since Dec. 20 1998 and its last eight-day losing streak was in September 1994.

The Dow Jones industrial average managed a small advance, thanks to gains in a handful of nontech issues, rising 21.74 to 10,645.38, its first advance since last Tuesday. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 5.93 to 1,208.43.

Decliners led advancers nearly 3 to 2 on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,793 down, 1,297 up and 191 unchanged. Volume came to nearly 1.10 billion shares vs. 1.57 billion Friday.

The NYSE composite index fell 2.09 to 619.85, the American Stock Exchange composite index fell 6.66 to 914.70 and the Russell 2000 index slipped 4.60 at 490.53. The Treasury's 10-year note fell 5/32 to 98 3/32; its yield rose 2 basis points to 5.25 percent. The 30-year bond fell 12/32 to 95 10/32; its yield rose 3 basis points to 5.70 percent.

Technology was again a focus of investors, who have shied away from the sector on concerns that its performance won't recover until 2002.

Although second-quarter earnings were expected to be horrible, Wall Street has had a hard time adjusting to the spate of corporate earnings warnings that have been appearing recently.

Oracle fell 16 cents to $14.84 in regular trading before rebounding to $15.20 in the extended session on results that beat expectations by a penny. Still, analysts were doubtful that the report would do much to improve the market's mood since the software maker had previously reduced its estimates citing the economy.