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Investors Cash Out Before End Of Year

Associated Press

Stocks fell sharply on Thursday, led by technology shares, as investors ignored bullish economic news and aggressively sold their holdings to book yearend profits.

Traders attributed some of the loss to the “triple witching” expiration of options and futures contracts today, which often adds volatility to the market in sessions leading up to the deadline.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 34.32 to 5,182.15, after climbing Wednesday to its 69th record high of the year. Declining issues led advancers by about 11 to 9 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume was heavy at 461.96 million shares, up from Wednesday’s pace.

Broad indexes were particularly hard-hit by the sell-off in technology shares. The NYSE’s composite index fell 2.07 to 329.10. The Nasdaq composite index fell 18.35 to 1,038.19.

“There’s some serious weakness here,” said Larry Rice, chief investment officer at Josephthal, Lyon & Ross.

Some of the stocks that moved substantially or traded heavily:

NYSE

Caldor fell 1/4 to 3-3/4.

The discount retailer reported a third-quarter loss of $1.92 per share including a special charge of $4.6 million for petitioning for bankrupcty protection. That compares with a net gain of 6 cents a year ago. Third-quarter sales at stores open at least a year fell 11.4 percent. Caldor said it continues to face a “difficult retail environment.”

Merck rose 1-3/4 to 66-7/8.

American Home Products rose 7/8 to 98-3/4.

Pfizer Inc. rose 1-1/8 to 66-1/4.

Schering-Plough Corp. fell 5/8 to 57-7/8.

Montgomery Securities started coverage of American Home, Pfizer and Schering-Plough at “buy,” and Merck at “neutral.”

Chyron rose 3/8 to 2-3/4.

The company entered into a joint venture with BVR Technologies’ Real Timne Synthesized Entertainment Technology unit to sell and distribute Real Time’s Virtual Reality Studio Systems. BVR’s stock rose 3/4 to 10-5/8 in Nasdaq trading.

NASDAQ

Novell unchanged at 15-1/4.

Worries about sales of the company’s NetWare product sent the stock lower in early trading, but it recovered slightly after the New York market opened. Late Wednesday, the networking software maker reported fourth-quarter earnings of 16 cents per share, up from 6 cents a year ago. Sales of WordPerfect, whose operations are up for sale, declined to $49 million from $88 million.

American Greetings fell 7/8 to 26-1/4.

The greeting-card company reported third-quarter net income of 24 cents per share, including a special charge of 47 cents per share to adopt a new accounting rule, down from 79 cents a year ago. Excluding the charge, the company reported operating earnings of 71 cents per share, below analysts’ estimates of 75 cents.