Dow Off 72 On Worries About Rates
Stock prices declined today as investors, worried that higher interest rates could drag corporate earnings lower, took profits for the second day in a row.</br></br>The Dow Jones industrial average fell 71.58 points, to 9274.12, extending Monday's 13-point decline. The Dow was down 147.53 at one point today before recovering.</br></br>Broader stock indicators were lower as well, led by technology shares. The Nasdaq composite declined 46.67, to 2463.42. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index fell 11.01, to 1261.99.</br></br>Stock prices began falling early on Wall Street after Japan's interest rates rose to their highest levels since July 1997.</br></br>The higher Japanese rates sent the dollar and U.S. bond prices lower in New York, as U.S. investors anticipated that their Japanese counterparts, important buyers of U.S. Treasury bonds, would begin routing some of their funds away from U.S. securities and into Japan.