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Late-day rally reduces losses on Wall St

Stocks fell sharply on Wednesday, but rallied late in the day to end well above the day's lows amid news the United States was sending planes to West Asia.

The turnaround coincided with news that Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered more than 100 military aircraft to move toward West Asia in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington DC.

In the third day of trading since the stock market's shutdown after the World Trade Centre was destroyed, the Dow Jones Industrial average fell 144.27 points, or 1.62 per cent, to 8,759.13, according to the latest data. Earlier, the Dow had dropped as much as 423 points, or 4.75 per cent.

The Nasdaq composite dropped 27.43 points, or 1.76 per cent, to 1,527.65, rising from an earlier low of 1,451.31, a loss of 104 points, or 6.7 per cent.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index declined 16.67 points, or 1.61 per cent, to close at 1,016.07. Earlier, the S&P 500 fell through the psychologically important 1,000 mark for the first time since mid-October 1998. At the day's low, the broad market measure was whacked for a loss of 48 points, or 4.65 per cent.

"What's going on is rapid reductions in estimates for S&P 500 companies going forward," said Ralph Bloch, chief market analyst at Raymond James Associates.

Almost 50 companies, including aerospace leader Boeing Co, media company Viacom Inc and photo giant Eastman Kodak Co have warned business would be hurt directly or indirectly by the attacks that toppled the World Trade Centre's twin towers in New York and smashed part of the Pentagon near Washington, DC.

Eastman Kodak, one of the 30 stocks in the Dow average, finished above steep losses, falling $2.22 to $37.61, or off 5.6 per cent, after slashing its profit outlook as the attacks compounded economic weakness.

Media conglomerate Viacom, owner of the CBS television network, shed 58 cents to $31.32. The company said its earnings for the year would be lower than expected as non-stop news coverage of last week's attacks on the United States led to higher costs and a significant loss of advertising revenues.

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