Stock, Gold Prices Down; Dollar Mixed
Wall Street stocks, led by the technology sector, and gold prices fell Tuesday and the dollar was mixed as U.S. earnings woes and overseas economic worries took their toll on financial markets.
Stocks fell after news of weak profits from Oracle Corp. and Hilton Hotels Corp. led to fear about other possible earnings disappointments.
The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 61.18 points at 8,049.66. In the broader market, declining issues beat advances by 17 to 11 in heavy trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index plunged 30.97 points, or 1.8%, to 1,620.57.
The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock list fell 6.59 to 975.78, and the NYSE composite index fell 2.58 to 510.86. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 3.87 to 438.16.
Oracle cast a pall over the technology sector after the database-software maker posted an earnings shortfall and said a slowdown in Asian sales will hamper its growth.
Oracle’s stock plunged $9.44, or 30%, to $22.94 on record volume of more than 171 million shares, the heaviest one-day share volume ever at Nasdaq.
Hilton lost 81 cents to $28.44 after the hotel and casino company forecast lower fourth-quarter earnings.
Analysts said the Dow’s loss after Monday’s 38-point drop was part of a mild pullback. Last week, the Dow gained 326 points.
The dollar fell against the Japanese yen amid expectations Tokyo might stabilize its banking system. It rose against the mark as Germany’s jobless level reached another postwar high.
After a string of 5 1/2-year highs in recent sessions, the dollar fell below the key 130-yen level as investors bought yen, fearing the currency’s recent relative weakness.
Dollar traders “want to sell before hearing any sort of news that could possibly be supportive for the yen,” said Ralph DelZenero, vice president for foreign exchange at First Chicago NBD Bank.
The dollar traded at 129.59 yen, dropping from its 130.45-yen session high and below Monday’s 130.40 yen.
The dollar traded at 1.7913 marks, also off its session high of 1.7955, but above Monday’s 1.7890 marks.
News that Germany’s jobless level rose by 11,000 to a seasonally adjusted 4.526 million in November, with the unemployment rate standing steady at 11.8% signaled that Germany’s economic recovery remained fragile.
Bonds ended slightly higher, with the 30-year U.S. Treasury bond rising to push its down to 6.11% from Monday’s 6.14%.
Among Tuesday’s highlights:
* Big technology losers included Compaq Computer, off $2.13 to $63.38 as the most active issue on the New York Stock Exchange, while IBM fell $2.50 to $110.38 and Hewlett-Packard fell $1.94 to $64.56 as the Dow’s two weakest components.
In Nasdaq trading, Intel fell $2.81 to $75.63, and Cisco Systems fell $2.31 to $87.44.
In commodities trading, gold prices slid further to 18-year lows as gold miners sought to protect themselves from more price falls by hedging even more of their expected output, traders said.
Comex February gold ended down $5.10 to $282.80 an ounce, after seeing a new contract low at $283.30. On Monday, gold ended at $287.90.
In the bullion market, spot gold ended quoted $282.50 an ounce, after fixing in London Tuesday afternoon at $283.25 an ounce, the lowest fix since August 1979.
On overseas stock markets, London’s FTSE-100 closed down 0.20%. Tokyo’s 225-share Nikkei average closed up 3.44%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index of blue-chip stocks fell 1.98%.
