Business Channel 2007-03-02&04

It's the worst one-day sell-off on Wall Street since after the 9/11 attacks. Stock prices plunged¹ today across the board and around the world. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down about 416 points at the closing bell and at one point it fell unusually fast, in part because of a computer glitch³. CNN's Ali Velshi is in New York with more on what's driving the market down. Ali, one of the big facts this was a big drop in China overnight that caused the US market to drop. The Asian market is now beginning to open for the next day there. Are we seeing anything that we should comfort us or things that should alarm us?

No, in fact, we should probably a little, be a little bothered. Tokyo opened 15 minutes ago we are now getting word that that market is down almost 4% now. So, we are feeling the reverb of what's started in Asia, back in Asia. Within an hour and a half, we'll see Shanghai open again which is where this started and then in two hours we'll see Hong Kong, then in a few hours London and Frankfurt. We will be back to US markets. What we have here is a combination of forces that drove the market down for the first several hours of the day. There was no surprise, John, all the evidence or economic numbers. There was a sell-off in China. We expected markets to be lower, but then all of a sudden, at about 2:59 pm, we went from a 300-point loss which was a big deal, anyway, to a 400-point loss within a minute and then a 500-point loss all the way to 546 points. This all happened inside of three minutes. At the close of the market at 3:59 to 4 o'clock, there was widespread booing on the floor of the exchange. You can hear it there. These /are traders who said something was wrong, this is not a normal sell-off. Within an hour, we had acknowledgements from the Dow Jones and the New York Stock Exchange that there was some kind of glitch. Now we don't know whether that glitch was in the accounting⁴ or in the trading, but it seemed to have accelerated the effect of today. Well, we are ending up with there, as you can see, a 416-point loss at the close. It's a major loss for the Dow, the thing that we are watching for is whether this continues to have an effect around the world or whether this gets moderated. The moment the news isn't good, Tokyo is open with almost a 4% loss, John.

And Ali, you see, we don't know a lot about this glitch. Have we heard from market officials? Are they confident that they /have at least figured out to the degree that if it's another tough day tomorrow we won't have another glitch?

Well, we've, we've. What they are confident of is that there was definitely a glitch in the tabulation⁵. They, they, they couldn't keep up with the trade, so what happened is at one point the Dow Jones which is not the New York Stock Exchange, they tabulated⁶ the results. The Dow decided⁷ to switch to its backup system and in doing so, all of that, that trading that was happening caught up to it and you saw this drop within three minutes.

They're saying the drop should've happened over 40 or 50 minutes. It happened over 3 minutes. Well, we are not clear on it and we are pressing for an answer from the New York Stock Exchange, was there a trading problem? Was there a compute² glitch that caused the acceleration⁸ of this, this sell-off. It is very unusual to see a four and five hundred-point drop on the Dow Jones without very clear evidence that there is a problem in the economy. We don't have that evidence, John.

Notes:

Sell-Off
The rapid selling of securities, such as stocks, bonds and commodities. The increase in supply leads to a decline in the value of the security.

1 plunged   

v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降

参考例句：

• The train derailed and plunged into the river. 火车脱轨栽进了河里。
• She lost her balance and plunged 100 feet to her death. 她没有站稳，从100英尺的高处跌下摔死了。

2 compute   

v./n.计算，估计

参考例句：

• I compute my losses at 500 dollars.我估计我的损失有五百元。
• The losses caused by the floods were beyond compute.洪水造成的损失难以估量。

3 glitch   

n.干扰；误操作，小故障

参考例句：

• There is a glitch in the computer program somewhere.这个计算机程序中的某个部分有点小问题。
• It could just be a random glitch that can be solved by restarting the machine.可能只是一个小故障，重新启动主机就能解决了。

4 accounting   

n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表

参考例句：

• A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
• There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。

5 tabulation   

作表，表格； 表列结果； 列表； 造表

参考例句：

• A tabulation of a function of two variables is cumbersome, but possible. 二元函数的列表法是不方便的，然而是可能的。
• Such a tabulation cannot represent adequately the complex gradation relationships between the types. 这样的图表不能充分代表各类型之间的复杂级配关系。

6 tabulated   

把（数字、事实）列成表( tabulate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Results for the test program haven't been tabulated. 试验的结果还没有制成表格。
• A large number of substances were investigated and the relevant properties tabulated. 已经研究了多种物质，并将有关性质列成了表。

7 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

8 acceleration   

n.加速，加速度

参考例句：

• All spacemen must be able to bear acceleration.所有太空人都应能承受加速度。
• He has also called for an acceleration of political reforms.他同时呼吁加快政治改革的步伐。