Rising interest rates and oil prices and subprime mortgage losses at a Bear Stearns hedge fund sent stocks tumbling again on Friday.
The sell-off — one of a half-dozen this month on credit market and inflation fears — overshadowed the much-anticipated IPO of private equity firm Blackstone Group , a big player in the private equity takeover craze that has driven stocks higher in the last year.
eBay gained 2% on reports that it could reenter the Chinese auction market.
Jabil was a standout on a day that saw 90% of S&P 500 stocks losing ground, soaring 9% on better than expected results.
But the S&P was mostly unkind to tech stocks. ADC telecom , Sanmina
and PMC-Sierra
fell on news that they will be dropped from the S&P 500, and National Semi
will be deleted from the S&P 100.
Cognos fell on its results, and Nuance
declined on an acquisition.
Inphonic slid on a downgrade.
The Nasdaq lost 28 to 2588, the S&P 500 fell 19 to 1502, and the Dow tumbled 185 to 13,360. Volume soared to 4 billion shares on the NYSE, and 3.5 billion on the Nasdaq. Declining issues led by a 23-8 margin on the NYSE, and 20-10 on the Nasdaq. Downside volume was 74% on the NYSE, and 70% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 100-97 on the NYSE, and 108-94 on the Nasdaq.
