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Wednesday June 26, 8:03 am Eastern Time

U.S. investors brace for a scary ride

By Julie Rannazzisi

NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Investors will have a clear reason to sell stocks on Wednesday. WorldCom's shocking revelation of fraud will punish stocks, which were already relentlessly being dumped by investors in the pre-open. WorldCom's news hits a market already contending with an acute crisis of confidence. Profit and economic worries, terrorism and war fears have all coalesced to chip away at stocks over the past weeks.

The post-September 11 lows on Nasdaq will now look like a distant memory. Nasdaq futures are down an eye-popping 42.00 points, or 4.1 percent, and were trading a huge 43.70 points under HL Camp & Co.'s fair value figures.

And September S&P 500 futures collapsed 23.90 points, or 2.5 percent, and traded around 27.20 points below fair value, according to HL Camp.

WorldCom craters WorldCom is now a whisker from bankruptcy amid a $3.8 billion accounting fraud that took out the company's chief financial officer and produced 17,000 layoffs. WorldCom's shares fell as much as 76 percent in after-hours action and were halted in the pre-open.

Investors flee to Treasurys Government bonds rallied heartily across the board as investors looked for safety amid an expected collapse in stocks.

The 10-year Treasury note rallied 1 13/32 to yield (CBOE:^TNX - News) 4.64 percent while the 30-year government bond flew 1 21/32 to yield (CBOE:^TYX - News) 5.345 percent.

The Fed's two-day meeting will conclude in the afternoon.

In the currency sector, the dollar slid 1.5 percent to 119.48 yen while the euro declined 1.4 percent to 99.25 cents.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2002

Answers

Yup, market not happy today.

I have a very flexible 401(k). I can make on-line changes right up to closing time. It is very tempting to try to do some market timing. Fortunately I have been sitting on my hands instead.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2002

(Fortunate, because I have been in a money market fund for a while now...)

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2002

It's around one-ish and the Dow is only down about 95 points--Cavuto thought it would tank by about 220-230. Maybe it will later. Or maybe people aren't as scared since the Enron fiasco. We had to keep our spare cash in a savings account because we didn't know what was going to happen re Jim's job, etc. What's left of it's still there, haven't had time or brain to do aything else with it.

Fingers crossed.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2002

At 3:30pm CDT it is down only 6pts. Gee wonder who stepped in for the save??

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2002

HHH = HOT, HAZY, HUMID

At the risk of people throwing small objects at me, check out what George Ure of Web Bot fame wrote about "June Swoon" in the market. His latest article is under "week article list" at http://www.urbansurvival.com

LINK

There's a more direct path ... I think it's like addding week.html on the end or something. I'm on a very slow dial-up connection with a 2400 baud modem, so I'm not surfing. Tomorrow, if nothing else happens, I go to pick up new computer equipment.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2002

Looked for the title on the listed offerings. Couldn't find it. I'm on a slow dial-up too until we get resettled, whenever that will be.

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2002

Meemur, I wouldn't presume to throw small objects at you, I don't have the energy.

It was so hot that the dog was chasing the cat, and they were both walking...

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2002

Groan!

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2002

http://www.urbansurvival.com/week.htm

Linkiepoo

Here's the exact place. You'll have to read it from the bottom for it to make sense.

Brooks, your animals have way more energy than mine -- the most the dog I'm sitting for can do is manage a narrowing of eyes in the cat's direction. I've got the a/c on, but it's not doing much for the humidity.

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2002