Dow off 51 as swine-flu fears hit stocks

By Charley Blaine and Elizabeth Strott
MSN
Investors dump airline and cruise stocks, worrying that travelers will skip trips to Mexico and the United States. GM will cut 21,000 jobs and slash 40% of dealerships; bondholders are unhappy. Bank stocks drop ahead of stress test results.

Stocks finished lower today because of the swine flu outbreak in Mexico and United States. But the damage was not nearly as bad as feared.

Hotel and airline stocks and the shares of pork producers were hit hard by the news, and financial stocks dropped on economic fears and worries about how much new capital the companies may need.

But as futures trading overnight had suggested, the day could have been much, much worse.

The Dow Jones industrials ($INDU) ended down 51 points, or 0.6%, to 8,025.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index ($INX) fell 9 points, or 1%, to 856.
The Nasdaq Composite Index ($COMPX) slipped 15 points, or 0.9%, to 1,679.
The Nasdaq-100 Index ($NDX.X), which tracks the largest Nasdaq stocks, slipped 3 points, or 0.2%, to 1,370.

The selling continued a pattern in force since the market rally began on March 10: Stocks have fallen in six of the last seven Mondays and have moved higher at the end of each week.

The market found support near two key levels: The Dow dropped below 8,000 at 1:50 p.m. and quickly rebounded. The S&P 500 finished fairly close to 860. The Dow

While the swine flu outbreak hit travel and a number of food stocks, it boosted shares of the makers of drugs that can help prevent catching the disease.

The worries spread to energy stocks, pushing the price of crude oil lower, and added to the worries about how long the recession will last.

The downturn came despite a 20.7% gain -- to $2.06 -- in shares of General Motors (GM, news, msgs), which announced a new restructuring plan. GM's gain was the largest among the 30 Dow stocks.

Meanwhile, financial stocks were lower on worries about whether the government's stress test will force several large regional banks to raise new capital.
Regions Financial (RF, news, msgs) was down 11.7% to $4.91; KeyCorp (KEY, news, msgs) fell 12% to $6.16.

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