
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, July 23, 1990                   TAG: 9007230265
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Short

MARKET PLUNGES IN EARLY TRADING

An unexpected plunge in stock prices spooked Wall Street today with a drop of more than 100 points in the Dow Jones industrial average in the first 90 minutes of trading.

The Dow average, which had flirted with a record 3,000 close last week, tumbled 107 points to the 2,850 level by midmorning before regaining about 30 points to about 2,880 by 11:30 a.m. The fall was aggravated by computerized selling strategies known as program trading. Federal regulators were monitoring the situation.

Brokers blamed the market's latest weakness on a number of causes, ranging from disappointing corporate earnings reports of leading U.S. companies to the uncertain outlook for interest rates and the economy.

by CNB