Asia Turmoil Dumps Dow Again Stock Index Skids 269 Points, Rebounds To End Day Off 90

The Dow Jones industrials slid 269 points on Friday before erasing two-thirds of its losses by the end of the second-busiest trading session ever.

The drop was tied to escalating economic troubles in Asia and continued worries about how they will affect domestic corporate earnings. But many saw the drop as exaggerated and a steady stream of buying interest into the afternoon saved the Dow from its worst drop since the 554-point loss on Oct. 27.

The Dow average ended down 90.21 at 7,756.29, extending Wednesday’s 110-point decline and ending lower for the third consecutive session. But in a sign of health for technology stocks, the Nasdaq Stock Market finished the day with a slight gain.

Volume on the New York Stock Exchange was the second-highest in history, with 782.03 million shares changing hands, the highest level since it topped 1 billion shares on Oct. 28.

The market fell to its low of the day about 90 minutes after the opening on Wall Street after another major corporate bankruptcy in Japan precipitated a 5-percent drop in the Nikkei index that spread to Europe before reaching the United States.

The rout in Japan resulted from a bankruptcy filing by Toshoku Ltd., a Japanese food trading company, which cited tighter lending policies among Japan’s troubled banks.