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Rate worries sink stocks
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May 6, 1999: 4:17 p.m. ET
Bond yields rise, alarming stock traders and driving Wall Street into retreat
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Inflationary fears and climbing bond yields put the fear of Alan Greenspan into Wall Street Thursday, leaving investors reeling and stocks broadly lower, especially in the technology sector.
According to preliminary data, the Dow Jones industrial average ended down a scant 13.45 points at 10,941.96, having treaded much deeper into the red through the session. Declines outpaced advances by 1,546 to 1,422 on the New York Stock Exchange, while trading volume reached 860 million shares.
The Nasdaq Composite suffered more severe losses, ending down 62.12, or nearly 2.5 percent, at 2,472.33 as investors increasingly retreated from richly-valued technology shares. The S&P 500 index shed 15.25 to 1,332.06.
A dramatic downturn on the bond market was one of the leading causes of the stock market's woes. Bonds tumbled after Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned that present economic conditions of growth without inflation were unlikely to last forever, terrifying the already nervous inflation-sensitive market.
The benchmark 30-year Treasury bond plunged 1-6/32 points in price, pushing the yield up to a 9-month high of 5.79 percent.
The dollar, which thrives on inflationary conditions, got little support from Greenspan, instead following the stock market lower to trade weaker against the resurgent euro and flat against the yen. 
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