Dow Falls 27 in Biggest Decline Since Late July
Reversing a trend of record rallies, blue-chip stocks ended today with their sharpest loss since late July as profit-takers moved to lock in gains.</br></br>The Dow Jones industrial average was off 26.83 points to end at 3607.10. It was the average's biggest decline since it lost 27.95 points on July 30.</br></br>Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones by about 8 to 5 on the New York Stock Exchange, and volume totaled 229.3 million shares, up from 195.9 million Friday. The Nasdaq index was also hit hard, losing 10.36 points to end at 739.35.</br></br>"This is typical of September and the Labor Day aftermath," said Gene Jay Seagle, director of technical analysis at Gruntal & Co. "I would think some kind of small correction is not to be unexpected at this particular time."</br></br>Analysts said the market may be waking up to the fact that there has been complacency among investors, who have been pouring record amounts of cash into stocks.