Not surprisingly after a week of bad news from around the world, stock markets took a tumble on Friday. US analysts blamed economic troubles in Russia and Japan rather than US aggression in the Middle East for a loss of confidence which saw the Dow Jones trading as much as 280 points down before rallying to close at 8533.65, 77.76 points below Thursday’s close. Nasdaq was hit harder still, shedding nearly 3% of its value. Semiconductor, PC and software stocks took their share of the fall, with Intel, National Semiconductor, IBM, Dell and Microsoft all slipping. Of the internet stocks, Excite Inc took the worst beating, closing more than 7% down to $40.50.
