Stocks fell sharply in New York yesterday as investors shed Internet and bank shares, fearing that profits would be hampered in coming months by threats as diverse as higher interest rates and the Y2K bug.
At the close of trading on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 174.61 points - or 1.6 per cent - at 10,654.67. At one point late in the session, the blue-chip average had tumbled almost 203 points.
The Standard and Poor's 500 fell 23.64 to 1,306.65, and the Nasdaq composite fell 66.48 to 2,453.66.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 2-to-1 margin on the New York Stock Exchange, with 2,054 down, 952 up and 536 unchanged.
NYSE volume totalled 734.99 million shares, against 685.49 million in the previous session.
The NYSE composite index fell 10.82 to 626.05, and the American Stock Exchange composite index fell 9.96 to 785.41.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 8.74 to 440.40.
