A late burst of bargain-hunting halted a sharp decline for the second successive session yesterday as Wall Street seesawed into the conclusion of a volatile, bruising week.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 41.97 points - or 0.5% - at 7,640.25 after charging back over the final half hour from a 186-point slide.
The small drop left the Dow almost exactly 1,700 points, or about 18 per cent, below the July 17th record of 9,337.97.
While it was the third successive losing session, yesterday's finish represented a sharp improvement from earlier in the week.
There were more signs yesterday of the Asian crisis weakening the US economy, which could add to the case for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates soon - a move that would help prevent further economic slowdown.
Financial companies took another beating amid worries about their loans to the crisis-plagued economies in Asia and Russia. Chase Manhattan and Citicorp showed big losses, while American Express and J.P. Morgan Travelers Group led the Dow's decline again.
The Standard and Poor's 500 fell 8.37 to 973.89, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index fell 5.34 to 1,566.52.
Declining issues barely outnumbered advancers on the New York Stock Exchange, with 1,489 up, 1.528 down and 501 unchanged.
The NYSE composite index fell 3.58 to 486.31, and the American Stock Exchange composite index rose 4.01 to 602.71.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 0.78 to 347.07.
