Wall Street Stocks End Sharply Lower

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, September 04, 2002

Wall Street Stocks End Sharply Lower

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Wall Street stocks ended sharply lower Tuesday, with the Standard & Poor's index falling below 900 mark, as a weaker-than-expected report on manufacturing activity, the rating cuts of Citigroup and Ford, and a negative note on Intel disappointed investors.

The Dow Jones industrial average tumbled 355.45 points, or 4.10percent, to 8,308.05, after falling 7.49 points Friday. US stock market was closed on Monday for the Labor Day holiday.

Broader stock indicators were sharply down. The technology heavy Nasdaq composite index plunged 51.01 points, or 3.87 percent,to 1,263.84. The Standard & Poor's 500 index dived 38.05 points, or 4.15 percent, to 878.02.

The market moved down sharply after the Institute for Supply Management reported that its index of manufacturing activity came in at 50.5 in August, the same level in the previous month. The reading was below analysts' expectations of 51.8. An index above 50 means growth in the manufacturing sector.

Among the blue chips, Citigroup dropped 3.36 dollars, or 10 percent, to 29.39 dollars after Prudential Securities cut its rating on the banker to "sell" from "hold", and lowered its 2002 and 2003 estimates for the company. Ford fell 83 cents to 10.94 dollars on a UBS Warburg downgrade of the auto maker to "reduce" from "hold".

Meanwhile, Lehman Brothers cut its third-quarter revenue forecast for Intel, the world's largest chip maker, ahead of the company's mid-quarter update in the week. Intel declined 81 cents to 15.86 dollars, National Semiconductor sank 1.02 dollars to 14.97 dollars, and Applied Materials lost 37 cents to 12.99 dollars.

Also in the technology sector, IBM skid 1.74 dollars to 73.64 dollars on news that it may have to cut 4,000 jobs once it completes its acquisition of PricewaterhouseCooper's consulting unit, while Sun Microsystems eased 24 cents to 3.45 dollars, CiscoSystems slipped 76 cents to 13.06 dollars, Oracle slid 53 cents to9.06 dollars, and Microsoft was off 2.06 dollars at 47.02 dollars.

The NYSE index closed down 19.22 points at 476.33, the AmericanStock Exchange index fell 10.17 points to 857.16, and the Russell 2000 index of smaller companies dropped 11.83 points to 379.13.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 10-to-3 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 752 up, 2,528 down and 139 unchanged.

NYSE trading volume increased to 1.29 billion shares from 0.94 billion in the previous session.

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