Blue chips finished with steep losses yesterday but only after rebounding from an early deeper sell-off amid fresh signs that Asia's economic crisis will hurt US corporate profits.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 90.21 points at 7,756.29. In the broader market, declining issues beat advances 2-1 on active volume of more than 786 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange.

The Dow had been down 270 points early.

Stock volatility was heightened by the "triple witching" expiration of stock and index options and index futures.