Dow Falls 17; Technology Stocks Take a Beating
. NEW YORK, Jan. 15ÛÓTechnology stocks undermined the stock market again today as mounting fears about corporate earnings clouded a quiet holiday barling session.</br></br>, me Dow jones industrial average leS 17.34 points, to 1)043.78. It was down almost 25 points near the dope, but rebounded slightly. In the morning, the bjud-chip average had risen more than 17 points.</br></br>., liedining issues outnumbered advancing ones by about 4 to 3 on the New York Stock Exchange, where trading volume reached about 306.2 million shares, compared with 383.4 million Friday.</br></br>Û÷.With the Treasury bond market, banks and most government offices dosed for the observance of Martin Luther King Jr.Ûªs birthday, investors had little to foijus on but worries about impending earnings reports. Many of last weekÛªs early peeks at profits for thqlast quarter of 1995 were not encouraging.</br></br>Û÷In the depressed technology sector, many players began bracing for possible disappointments in this vvegkÛªs reports by industry bellwethers IBM, Intel andÛ÷Microsoft. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index lost 19.66 points to dose at 988.57. Û÷Technology was one of tire main sources of upside fuel for this market for almost two years,Û said Ralph Bloch, chief market analyst at Raymond James & Associates in St Petersburg, Fla. Û÷This weakness is so pervasive that itÛªs dearly starting to spill over into other areas.Û