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Toil and trouble on Wall St.
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August 21, 1998: 11:40 a.m. ET
Stocks plummet as Russia roils world markets, Clinton strikes terrorists
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - A global market rout sowed panic on Wall Street Friday and sent investors on a dumping rampage. Fears mounted that Russia's economic problems will cause emerging markets around the world to recoil while the Asian crisis still looms large and the U.S. president faces a personal crisis.
Shortly before 12:00 p.m. the Dow Jones industrial average plunged 258.75 points, or 3 percent, to 8,352.66. Declining issues trounced advancing stocks 2,536 to 373 as 318 million shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange.
The Nasdaq Composite shed 60.61, or 3.3 percent, to 1,771.84 and the S&P 500 index fell 33.43, or 3 percent, to 1,058.17. (Click here for a look at today's CNNfn market movers.)
Comments by Russian Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko that his country's financial and economic crisis has barely started and calls for President Yeltsin's resignation, rattled emerging markets around the world and spread as far as Latin America, where fears of currency devaluations sent stock markets plunging.
Russia's woes also stung markets in Europe, while news that another big financial firm has gone bankrupt hurt stocks in Tokyo and the rest of Asia.
At home, news of Thursday's two U.S. military attacks on suspected terrorist targets in Sudan and Afghanistan added pressure on Wall Street. The attacks raised uncertainty in the market and questions about the timing of President Clinton's decision to strike while an investigation into an affair he had with a former White House intern is at its height.
The global turmoil was good news for the bond market, however, where investors sought protection for their money, driving the yield of the benchmark 30-year Treasury bond down to a record low 5.39 percent.
The dollar gained ground against the Japanese yen and the German mark as international investors flocked to what they perceive to be a safer currency bet.
Bank stocks feel the pain
Financial services and banking stocks, whose exposure to international currency markets, makes them especially vulnerable, were among the biggest losers in early trading.
Dow component J.P. Morgan (JPM) lost 3-5/16 to 119-1/2 and fellow blue chip American Express (AXP) was down 2-5/8 to 94-1/2. Citicorp (CCI) shed 5-5/16 to 133-3/4 and Chase Manhattan (CMB) fell 2-9/16 to 62-13/16.
Technology heavyweights, which derive a large chunk of their revenues from business in Asia and around the world, also were sent in a free-fall. Microsoft (MSFT) lost 2-9/16 to 110, Dell (DELL) tanked 3-13/16 to 118-5/16, Intel (INTC) shed 1-13/16 to 84-3/16 and Dow member IBM (IBM) traded 2-5/16 lower at 125-3/4.
Airline shares followed suit, with AMR (AMR), the parent of American Airlines, losing 2-5/16 to 61-3/4, Delta Air Lines (DAL) dropping 4-5/8 to 114-3/8, and United Airlines parent UAL (UAL) sliding 2-7/16 to 66-11/16. The Dow transports index fell 79.67, or 2.6 percent, to 2,967.58.
Finally, shares of software-based imaging systems maker Peerless Systems (PRLS) found no peers among the losers, dropping 13-25/32, or almost 67 percent, to 6-27/32 after the company issued a profit warning for the rest of its fiscal 1999 and fiscal 2000. 
-- by staff writer Malina Poshtova Zang
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