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Dow Ends Down 383 As Stocks Drop
Thursday, September 20, 2001 (18:21 EDT)
By Amy Baldwin / AP Business Writer

NEW YORK -- AP
Wall Street hastened its retreat from the economic damage of last week's terrorist attacks, sending stocks tumbling Thursday in their third steep decline in four days.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 382 points, bringing its loss so far this week to 1,229 points -- nearly 13 percent -- and putting the blue chip index in line for its biggest one-week point drop.

“It's rollercoastering down,” said Matt Brown, head of equity management at Wilmington Trust.

The market's anxiety surged Thursday as Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told Congress the terrorist attacks have hurt the economy in a number of ways, including a drop in consumer spending and travel and last week's four-day shutdown of the stock market.

While the Fed chairman also said, “I am confident that we will recover and prosper as we have in the past,” the Dow still fell sharply -- down 382.92, or 4.4 percent, to 8,376.21.

And, unless the blue chips rally substantially Friday, they are likely to have their biggest one-week point drop, eclipsing the 821.21 they fell in the week ending March 16. As of now, the Dow's percentage loss for the week is its ninth largest.

The Dow also closed below 8,400 for the first time since October 1998.

The broader market also skidded lower Thursday, with the Nasdaq composite index falling 56.87, or 3.7 percent, to 1,470.93 and the Standard & Poor's 500 index off 31.56, or 3.1 percent, at 984.54.

This is the first time the S&P 500, considered the market's best indicator, has closed below 1,000 since October 1998.
(AP News Source)
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Dan