Blue Chip Selloff Intensified Market Plunge.

Publication: The Miami Herald (Miami, Florida) (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News)

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COPYRIGHT 2001 The Miami Herald

Byline: Ina Paiva Cordle

Mar. 23--Worried investors intensified their selloff of blue chip stocks Thursday, accelerating the decline in the Dow Jones industrial average and sending the stock market's best-known indicator into bear market territory for much of the day.

A last-hour rally allowed the Dow to recover somewhat, but the index still closed with a loss of nearly 100 points.

Investors are in "deep despair," said Hugh Johnson, chief investment officer for First Albany Corp. "There is a sense of giving up. They are extraordinarily depressed and demoralized."

But the market is overreacting, and out of sync with economic reality, said Lynn Reaser, chief economist and senior market strategist with Banc of America Capital Management.

"There seems to be a major discrepancy between what is happening on Main Street and on Wall Street," she said. "The overall economy is slowing, but if you...

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