Stock Prices Continue to Decline As Investors Shift Their Strategies
Stock prices slid in active trading as many of the winners of the past 12 months continued to lead the market lower.</br></br>Drug, food and tobacco stocks were for sale yesterday by investors as they put more faith in an improving economy ahead and focused on more cyclical issues. Issues sensitive to interest rates lost ground as rates rose and oil stocks sustained heavy profit-taking.</br></br>Many technology stocks, however, including International Business Machines, moved higher despite the downbeat tone of the market.</br></br>The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 11.11 points at 1888.64. The industrial average began its slide at the opening bell and showed a loss of more than 16 points at 3 p.m. EDT. However, several broad buy programs helped erase some of the losses in the final hour of trading.</br></br>Standard & Poor's 500-stock index dropped 2.33 to 248.14, and the New York Stock Exchange composite index declined 1.47 to 142.42.