(As Jupiter and Saturn barrel toward conjunction in May --remember "5-5-2000"?-- marking the end of one 20-year socioeconomic cycle and the beginning of another.) Says Joe Battipaglia, chief investment strategist at Gruntal & Co., "This particular correction has the same feel as the one in the summer and fall of 1998, which was the bottom of the Asian financial crisis" ... Likewise, he said, this week's decline was "not much different from the 'Big One' in 1987 -- sharp, steep, quick ...'' "The whole world is ready today for stocks to crash,'' said the top trader at J.P. Morgan in New York Gold jumped more than 2 percent last week, the biggest gain in months. "People are jumping out of stocks and into gold,'' said Carlos Perez-Santalla, president of Hudson River Futures in New York. "Gold is being counted on as 'disaster insurance'.'' A senior analyst at Renaissance Capital Corp.'s fund for initial public offerings adds, despite his optimism,."[In coming days], there will be a lot of people in pain.'' Look for `People in Pain' as US Stocks Tumble: David Wilson Princeton, New Jersey, April 14 (Bloomberg) -- Where does it all end? Anyone with money in U.S. stocks had plenty of reason to ask that question after witnessing today's carnage. The Dow Jones Industrial Average recorded its largest one-day point drop ever, and erased most of its gains since mid-March as a result. Intel Corp., American Express Co. and Procter & Gamble Co. each skidded more than 8 percent. The Nasdaq Composite Index fared worse. Its drop was not only the largest ever in points, but also the largest since the October 1987 crash in percentage terms. In addition, this week's decline was the biggest on record. The index has fallen by more than a third since surpassing 5000 just five weeks ago. ``Right now we are in a bear market,'' said Randall Roth, senior analyst at Renaissance Capital Corp.'s fund for initial public offerings. ``There will be a lot of people in pain.'' Investors in the Nasdaq's largest companies, as represented by the Nasdaq 100 index, certainly know the feeling. Almost half of the index's stocks fell 10 percent or more. Five of them, led by BroadVision Inc. and Applied Micro Circuits Corp., retreated more than 20 percent apiece. Giving Back Gains The Dow industrials tumbled 617.78 to 10,305.77, surpassing the 554.26-point drop in October 1997, when ``circuit breakers'' designed to limit the market's losses went into effort for the first -- and so far the only -- time ever. Although the latest setback wasn't as steep in percentage terms, the average's 5.6 percent decline ranked as the largest since August 1998. None of its 30 stocks rose. Intel, also a major contributor to the Nasdaq's plunge, fell 10 5/8 to 110 1/2. American Express declined 12 9/16 to 133 7/14 and Procter & Gamble lost 6 7/16 to 62 5/8. Between March 14 and Tuesday, the average climbed a total of 1476 points. Today's decline, coupled with losses the previous two days, erased about two-thirds of that advance. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index, a broader gauge, fell a bit more in the market's latest retreat. The index declined 83.20, or 5.8 percent, to 1357.31. Only two out of its 107 industry groups, precious metals and casinos, moved higher. So far this year, the Dow average is down 10.3 percent and the S&P 500 is down 7.6 percent. Neither loss quite compares with the 18.4 percent retreat in the Nasdaq Composite, the high-flier among benchmark U.S. indexes during the past couple of years. This week's numbers are enough to tell the story. While the Dow and the S&P 500 both had gains earlier this week, the Nasdaq retreated day after day: 5.8 percent on Monday, 3.2 percent on Tuesday, 7.1 percent on Wednesday and 2.5 percent on Thursday. `20 Percent Club' The index's 9.7 percent setback today ranked second only to its 11.4 percent plunge on Oct. 19, 1987, the day of the market's ``Black Monday'' crash. Today's 355.49-point decline brought its losses for the week to 25 percent. Its close of 3321.29 compared with a record 5048.62 on March 10. BroadVision, a Redwood City, California-based producer of software for electronic commerce, tumbled about 45 percent for the week, including a 26 percent decline today to 29 3/4. It surged as much as 24-fold in the preceding 15 months. Applied Micro Circuits, a maker of high-speed semiconductors for fiber-optic equipment, had a similar reversal. The San Diego- based company, which surged as much as 18-fold between the start of 1999 and the end of March, lost more than half its value this week. The stock slid 22 percent to 71 1/2 in today's trading. Other members of the Nasdaq 100's ``20 percent club'' were CMGI Inc., an Internet investment company, which declined 14 3/16 to 52 1/16; Qlogic Corp., a maker of semiconductor products, which retreated 16 1/2 to 62 1/2; and Atmel Corp., a maker of chips for computers and telecommunications equipment, which dropped 10 1/8 to 39 5/8. When it came to falling stocks on the Nasdaq, though, few compared with Emulex Inc. Shares of the Costa Mesa, California- based maker of networking equipment lost almost half their value as analysts expressed concern about slowing sales growth and increasing competition. They tumbled 41 1/4 to 41 11/16. Where DOES it all end, anyway? And just how much pain will investors have to take? Apr/14/2000 17:26 (C) Copyright 2000 Bloomberg L.P. US Treasuries erase CPI losses as Nasdaq nosedives By Andrew Priest NEW YORK, April 14 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasuries prices ricocheted on Friday, first plunging on stronger-than-expected inflation data, then moving higher as the technology-stocks roller-coaster threatened to come off the rails. ``You're seeing reallocation out of equities into Treasuries which together with the prospect of more (government debt) buybacks is supporting Treasuries despite the fact that the Fed is probably going to continue to tighten,'' said Bill Kirby, co-head of government trading at Prudential Securities. Treasuries initially blanched at a robust March Consumer Price Index reading, which showed a 0.4 percent gain in core prices, which exclude volatile energy and food prices, and an overall 0.7 percent rise. Government issues then pared most of their post-data losses as a fresh plunge in technology shares again boosted the appeal of Treasuries. By midday the Nasdaq was down 8.2 percent. ``The world is ready for stocks to crash today, so there are no shorts left in the market and there are people left with some stuff to sell,'' said Tom Connor, head trader at J.P. Morgan in New York, explaining why Treasury bonds were still in negative territory despite stocks being far lower. Thirty-year bonds were 5/32 lower at 106-7/32, pushing their yield up to 5.81 percent. Two-year notes, most sensitive to the interest rate outlook but also the major beneficiaries of short-term flows from weak stocks, were up 3/32 at 100-11/32 to yield 6.30 percent. Ten-year notes were down 6/32 at 104-12/32, yielding 5.91 percent. Five-year notes were up 4/32 at 98-27/32 to yield 6.17 percent. ``We expect the Treasury buybacks to begin again next week which makes people nervous about being short. Being short in the Treasury market has not been a good way to make money recently and weakness in equity markets just makes people nervous,'' said Hamilton Davis, a director of government trading at First Union Securities. In the past few weeks, fixed-income markets have traded in inverse fashion to stocks, with money flowing into the safe haven of government securities as equity markets fell. Major U.S. stock market indicators including the Dow Jones industrial average, the S&P 500 and the broader Wilshire 5000, are now lower than their levels at the end of last year. On top of that, the tech-heavy Nasdaq was down for the fifth straight session in early trade, with the Dow 30 testing lower levels. ``Equities, equities, equities,'' said Michael Pianin, a Treasuries trader at Fuji Securities, referring to the major focus of government bond markets this morning. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a 0.5 percent gain in CPI in March, the same increase as in February. They expected the core rate would nudge up 0.2 percent. Separately, March U.S. industrial production rose 0.3 percent versus a consensus forecast by economists of a 0.2 gain. Despite rising output, capacity utilization levels were at 81.4 percent of maximum levels, slightly lower than the 81.5 percent reading in February and indicating that no bottlenecks were emerging which could generate inflation down the road. The most recent batch of economic data, released just a day after stronger-than-expected sales by retailers, will keep investors focused on the likelihood of a stream of additional interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve in coming months. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Thursday that market interest rates, particularly long-term corporate bond yields, were moving in the right direction, an indication that the Fed's current cycle of tightening is having an impact. Greenspan made his remarks in testimony on the future of the securities markets before the Senate Banking Committee. The Fed chief was scheduled to speak again on Friday on the subject of ``Technology and Financial Services'' at noon (1600 GMT). Bill rates were unchanged. 13:10 04-14-00
