Analyst Shrugged

The Dow's monster rally Tuesday and its salutary effect on sickly foreign markets was supposed to mean that the U.S. was back in charge, that the Hong Kong tail was no longer wagging the New York dog.

Well, the dog is still nervous. Perhaps shaken by Wednesday night's Hang Seng backslide, perhaps just restless, jittery traders sent the Dow down 125 points in a final burst of trading Thursday. The casualties were the same names you've been hearing all week: IBM. Intel. Dell.

It could be consolidation--or the runup to another Freaky Friday. Anything can happen when the big players get jumpy. One thing seems certain: it won't be long until 100 points just ain't news anymore.