- NEW YORK (Reuters) - Money
managers dropped the phone and traders sat dumbfounded as market indexes
plunged to multiyear lows on Friday, stunning even the most seasoned Wall
Street pros.
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- "We were just sitting there in amazement watching
things slide," said Donna Van Vlack, head trader for fund management
firm Brandywine Asset Management. For investors, "It became wholesale
'Get me the hell out.'"
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- The New York Stock Exchange saw its busiest trading day
in history, with more than 2.63 billion shares changing hands. Major stock
indexes plunged, with the Dow Jones industrial average skidding almost
400 points to its lowest level since 1998.
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- As the Dow briefly sank below 8,000 in late-afternoon
trading, fund managers and traders alike were stunned. Since July 5, the
index has declined nine out of 10 days, shedding almost 1,400 points.
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- "Oh my God, we are under 8,000. I gotta go, I just
gotta go," said Mark Headley, portfolio manager at Matthews International
in San Francisco, during a telephone interview with Reuters as he watched
the blue-chip gauge sink.
-
- Headley hung up abruptly to talk strategy with colleagues
about the sell-off.
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- Investors sold about three stocks for every one stock
they bought on the NYSE, while the Nasdaq saw about five stocks sold for
every two purchased.
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- "The mood is just horrible," said Mike Driscoll,
a Bear Stearns trader, shortly after the close. "We are so damn busy
that people did not have time to reflect on their feelings. People were
hustling just to process the order flow."
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- The Dow sank 390.23 points, or 4.6 percent, to 8,019.26,
taking the market gauge to its lowest close since October 1998 and giving
it the seventh-largest point decline ever.
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- The broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 33.81
points, or 3.8 percent, to 847.75. The tech-laced Nasdaq Composite Index
fell 37.80 points, or 2.79 percent, to 1,319.15, its lowest close since
May 1997.
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- Market pros were not the only ones flummoxed by the sharp
declines.
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- Christine Smith of Oakville, a suburb of Toronto, gasped
on hearing of Friday's market rout during a visit to Boston.
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- "Our son's going to college next September -- we
hope," said Smith, who said all her family's assets are tied up in
stocks. "What can we do? We can either put our money in the casino
or the stock market. We knew the risks," she said.
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- Those who have avoided stocks were among the few feeling
relaxed.
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- "I don't put money into the market, so right now
I feel pretty good," said Bienvenido Echivarria, a 39-year-old employee
of a Boston photocopying service who said he had never invested in the
stock market and had no plans to do so.
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- Additional reporting by Greg Frost, Brendan Intindola
and Svea Herbst-Bayliss)
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