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THE BIG PICTURE
You gotta hand it to the market. If 2000 was going to be the worst year in a decade, it sure ended in style Friday.
After opening higher, the three major indexes got their act together and stageda final sell-off. The Nasdaq rallied for the first 15 minutes, then skied downhill the rest of the way. It ended near its session low, down 3.4%.
The Dow also let a tiny early gain slip away, sinking 0.8%. The S&P 500 shed 1%.
Nasdaq
volume surged 15% to 2.53 billion shares, the seventh highest on record 1. On the NYSE, trading rose slightly and was actually tame for most of the session. But it exploded in the final hour 2.
Why the selling rush? Did investors give up on their losing tech positions, taking the last chance of a tax write-off for 2000? Or did they sell on worriesof weaker earnings in the just-ended quarter and the following periods? Whatever the reason, the distribution cast some doubt on the market's latest rally, which began Dec. 21 3.