Nasdaq

NEW YORK -- Stocks closed mixed yesterday, as the Dow Jones industrial average fell while the Nasdaq Combined Composite Index of smaller stocks climbed nearly 1 percent."

NEW YORK -- U.S. stocks tumbled yesterday in a late-day sell-off, after a reversal in Treasury bond prices and concern that a stronger dollar might erode corporate profits.The Dow Jones industrial average fell 79.01 to 6,442.69, its biggest percentage drop since a 161-point plunge July 15. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 8.28 to 748.28, its largest decline in three months.The Nasdaq composite index rose 0.55 to 1,300.37, its seventh consecutive record.Concern that the U.S. dollar's recent rise might hurt multinational companies' earnings overseas battered such companies as General Electric Co., which lost $6.6 billion of its market value, falling $4 to $99.25.

An Alex. Brown Inc. executive has surfaced as a leading candidate to head the Nasdaq Stock Market Inc., a source familiar with the selection process said yesterday.Alfred R. Berkeley III, managing director at the Baltimore-based investment banking company, is one of a handful of executives in the running to become president of the nation's second-largest stock market -- the Nasdaq."He's got the skill sets that would be good; he certainly understands technology; he certainly understands the financial markets both from the underwriting and the back office point of view," the source said.

During a long career in government and private industry, Frank G. Zarb has been Mr. Fixit. Now, however, one of his major repair jobs appears to have sprung leaks. The Nasdaq stock market, following a strategy that Zarb developed in the late 1990s to try to keep it from coming apart, has rapidly lost money and market share. Amid a continued defection of customers to upstart electronic communications networks, or ECNs, Nasdaq's share of trades in its own listed stocks has fallen to 17 percent as of June from 18.7 percent in December, costing it fees.

The Nasdaq composite index took technology-stock investors on a ride yesterday that made Coney Island's vaunted Cyclone roller coaster seem tame. The index fell nearly 575 points, or 13.6 percent, by early afternoon, and spent the rest of the day in a rise-and-fall pattern that ended with the Nasdaq down a modest 74.79 points, or 1.77 percent, at 4,148.89. The midday point drop was the biggest ever for the index, which is dominated by technology stocks. The Nasdaq, which at its March 10 record high was up 24 percent for the year, is now up 2 percent for the year after a sell-off that started a week ago. Blue-chip investors had a similar case of the jitters.

Technology stocks ended their worst month since 1987 with a sell-off yesterday that - at its low for the day - saw the Nasdaq composite index down to half of its March 10 record high. The Nasdaq dropped 109 points, or 4 percent, to close at 2,597.93. The technology-laden index was down more than 183 points before an afternoon rally narrowed the loss. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 214.62 points, or 2 percent, to finish November at 10,414.49. Yesterday was the second-busiest day ever on both the New York Stock Exchange, where 1.498 billion shares changed hands, and on the Nasdaq, where volume was 2.65 billion shares.

NEW YORK - The Nasdaq composite index tumbled to its lowest close since December 1998 yesterday after reports signaled that the economy is slowing and Goldman Sachs & Co. cut profit forecasts for more than 30 technology companies. Qualcomm Inc., JDS Uniphase Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. led the Nasdaq decline. EMC Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Applied Micro Circuits Corp., among the stocks whose earnings estimates were cut by Goldman, also fell. The Nasdaq dropped 100.68 to 2,207.82, its lowest close since Dec. 31, 1998, and its first loss in three sessions.

Wall Street recovered yesterday -- at least temporarily -- from one of the worst weeks in its history in a topsy-turvy trading session that saw the Nasdaq composite index finish with its biggest point gain ever. It was a much better day than many had feared. Some market experts had predicted a continuation of the bloodletting on Friday, when the Dow Jones industrial average and the Nasdaq suffered their biggest point drops ever. But even with the gains, experts said, there are no guarantees that the carnage is finished.

The Dow Jones industrial average soared more than 320 points yesterday, while the technology-laden Nasdaq composite index fell nearly 125 -- a complete role-reversal from the past two months. Analysts said it is too soon to know if yesterday's reversal of fortune is the sign of renewed investor interest in blue-chip shares, a false break in a bear market, or just a brief respite from a bull market in technology stocks that's had a stubborn penchant for breaking all the rules. "We've seen such a tremendous dichotomy between technology and the rest of the market for quite awhile," said Gil Knight, a principal with Allied Investment Advisors in Baltimore.

Once again, on the last trading day of 1999, a bombshell announcement couldn't derail the momentum of the U.S. stock market. After waking to the news of Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin's resignation, traders sent the Dow Jones industrial average, the Standard & Poor's 500 index and the Nasdaq composite index to record highs. The major stock indexes produced double-digit returns for the fifth year in a row. "This year was extraordinary, exuberant and exciting, to say the least," said Alan R. Ackerman, senior vice president at Fahnestock & Co., a New York brokerage.