Wall Street stocks fell and bonds tumbled yesterday as the acquittal of President Clinton on impeachment charges failed to offset concern over financial events abroad. The dollar also weakened, dragged by subdued performances in US financial markets, while oil and precious metals finished with gains.

A sharp decline in the U.S. Treasury market capped the action, where losses on the 30-year bond topped two full points before a slight recovery pared the loss slightly to 1-27/32 at 97-13/32, or $18.4375 on a $1,000 bond, at the end of an abbreviated pre-holiday session.

The yield on the benchmark bond climbed to 5.43 per cent from 5.37 per cent on Thursday.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 88.57 points, or nearly 1 per cent to 9,274.89, while the Nasdaq Composite index, which is heavily weighted with technology stocks, slid 83.66 points, or 3.5 per cent, to 2,321.89.