Boeing Weighs On Industrials As Stocks Fall; Blue Chips Drop 88.37, Largest Point Decline In Dow So Far This Year
The Dow Jones Industrial Average suffered its worst point drop so far in the new year, with component Boeing leading the way down after its stock was downgraded.</br></br>The blue-chip average tumbled for a fourth straight day, off 88.37 points, or 0.7%, to 12477.16, up 0.1% on the year. Boeing plunged 3.4% after Wachovia Securities bumped its rating to market perform from outperform, saying aircraft orders are due to ebb.</br></br>Dow components Honeywell and Caterpillar also were among big decliners, off 2.3% and 2%, respectively. An early jump in oil prices spooked stock investors, but those gains evaporated by day's end.</br></br>Stephen Wood, a strategist at asset-management firm Russell Investment Group, said some investors may already be looking ahead to next week's meeting of Federal Reserve policy makers, increasingly nervous that signs of economic strength will trigger the central bank's inflation-fighting instincts.</br></br>That could mean raising its interest-rate targets at some point this year, rather than cutting them as many stock investors had hoped. Higher interest rates make bonds more attractive while raising borrowing costs for businesses and consumers, and thus tend to hurt stocks.