Blue-chip stocks ended higher yesterday as big-name shares got a boost from safe-haven buying on jitters over falling emerging markets but the Nasdaq market was hammered by a head-spinning drop in technology stocks.
Based on early, unofficial results, the Dow Jones industrial average ended up 22.42 points at 8,922.37.
But in the broad market, declining issues led advances 18 to 11 on moderate volume of 540 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange.
The Nasdaq composite index plunged 32.05 points, or 1.8 per cent, to 1,746.82.
"It's like a rolling correction. It picks a different group every day. Today it's techs and transports," said Guy Truicko, portfolio manager at Unity Management.
"The next thing facing the market is the earnings preannouncment period," he said. "It looks like all bets are off until we get through that."
The Russell 2000 index of small companies also suffered from the flight to big-name stocks. The Russell was off 5.47 points at 451.15.
Among the losers in the technology sector was computer-chip giant Intel Corp, which sank 37/16 to 68, on heavy volume of more than 27 million shares after the company said it would delay its next-generation Merced processor to mid-2000 from a 1999 target.
The Dublin stock market was closed yesterday as were Frankfurt and Paris
