Tom Whitehurst

Markets plummet in record selling

NEW YORK - The losers included airline, insurance and entertainment stocks while defense

Associated Press

A trader wears a dust mask on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Monday.

issues were among the few winners when prices tumbled on Wall Street Monday, the first day of trading after last week's terrorist attacks.
   The selling, in record volume on the New York Stock Exchange, gave the Dow Jones industrials their biggest one-day point drop, 684.81, and left them below 9,000 for the first time in more than 2 ¤ years.
   "To buy stocks you need some kind of clarity and confidence, and right now you've got neither," said Bill Barker, investment consultant at Dain Rauscher in Dallas. "The buying public is sitting on its hands. The sellers are obviously in control now."
   Analysts were unsure how long the selling would last or how intense if might become. Following last week's attacks, investors have more reason to worry about shrinking profits, not to mention national security.

Associated Press

A trader on the New York Stock Exchange reacts after the markets close Monday.

   Monday's selling could have been worse, something that was apparent in the number of stocks that fell vs. those that rose. The ratio of decliners to advancers was close to 6 to 1, typical of the Wall Street's recent selloffs; in the Oct. 19, 1987, crash, the ratio was 50 to 1.
   Quenton Williams, a retired Corpus Christi dentist who is active in the National Association of Investors Corp., he had a buy order pending Monday for pharmaceutical stock, but only because the order was delayed last week. He wasn't trying to time the market for a buying opportunity, he said. As always, his purchase was based on the strength of the company.
   Williams, 78, and his friend and neighbor, Louis Brannin, are fond of saying that they are long-term investors.
   "I'm 80 years old and I'm still looking five years out," said Brannin, a retired refinery manager, whose new house was financed with his investment earnings from 1995-1999. "I'm sold on long-term investing. I haven't lost a bit of sleep."
   Brannin didn't have money available to invest Monday because of the recent house purchase. Otherwise, he said, he would have been buying stocks.
   Both men expressed confidence in the U.S. economy.
   "My stocks are in good companies with low debt and the United States isn't going broke tomorrow," Williams said. "Buy good, solid companies that have good, solid earnings and low debt and don't worry about them. Price isn't as important as the company."
   Some local investment advisers said they handled high volume, heavier on buying than selling.
   "Tone-wise, it's kind of a quiet positive," said Jay Jones, branch manager for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. "No one's exuberant about the downturn but people are seeing it as a buying opportunity. Usually when there's a buying opportunity, people are excited that stocks are low and there's none of that, so it's kind of a weird feeling."
   Charles Doraine, first vice president for investments for Merrill Lynch, said he encountered a lot of patriotic buying.
   "I had one client say, 'Buy me $2,000 of anything,' which is interesting."
   The patriotism was mixed with old-fashioned bargain-hunting, he said.
   "People have been sitting back. Prior to this, the market had been down for a while and cash positions were among the highest ever," Doraine said. "So I see people beginning to commit some of that cash into what I see as long-term values and the rebuilding of technology in New York City."
  
  

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