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Greenspan spooks stocks
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May 6, 1999: 10:41 a.m. ET
Market recoils from hints that 'island of prosperity' may be drawing to an end
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Wall Street hit a rough patch in early Thursday trading as inflationary fears and a sell-off in the bond market made investors question whether high-flying stocks may have soared too high.
Shortly before 10:30 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 82.18 points at 10,873.23. Losers outnumbered gainers by 1,405 to 1,060 on the New York Stock Exchange, while volume reached 217 million shares.
The Nasdaq Composite fell 27.86 to 2,506.59 and the S&P 500 index slid 15.03 to 1,332.28.
Some of Wall Street's gloomy sentiments were reflected in bonds, which crashed through a key resistance level after wavering throughout the morning. The benchmark 30-year Treasury bond fell 26/32 of a point in price, pushing the yield up to 5.76 percent.
The bond market's weakness eroded the dollar's strength against the yen, while the euro continued on its recent upward course to hit a three-week high.
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan gave investors little comfort. In his comments to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Greenspan quashed the market's utopian belief that the U.S. economy is in "a new era" of sustainable growth without inflation, leading wary investors to lower their expectations. 
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