Wall Street report: Friday close

TRADING fell into the 'it could have been worse' column after shares climbed back from an early plunge blamed on the world's biggest semiconductor maker.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 34.97 points or 0.4% at 9,589.67 after tumbling as much as 150 points earlier. The Nasdaq dropped 19.40 points or 1.3% to 1535.48. The Dow closed down 3.4% on the week, bringing its loss for the year to 4.3%. The Nasdaq lost 5.1% on the week to bring its losses for 2002 to 21%.

Intel shares plunged $5 or 19% to $22, dragging the rest of the tech sector with it. Other chipmakers saw selling as well, with Advanced Micro Devices tumbled 81 cents or 7.6% to $9.80 and Texas Instruments was down $1.30 or 4.7% to $26.39. Dell Computer, which had forecast a rebound in PC demand, erased much of its early loss to close off 19 cents or 0.7% to $26.28. Sun Microsystems dropped 21 cents or 3.2% to $6.42. IBM came off $1.36 or 1.7% to $78.30.

But techs were not the only sector hit, prompting analysts to attribute the sell-off to a wider loss of confidence in the market, and company accounting and forecasts. 'What you see here is people pulling their money out because they don't believe the underlying data,' said Steven Ricchuito of ABN Amro. 'It is tied to emotion and fear.'

Eroding confidence was a factor in another sharp sell-off in Tyco International, the conglomerate dogged by accounting questions involving its departing chief executive Dennis Kozlowski. Tyco shares dropped $4.49 or 31% to $10.11, from $60 in January. Doubts that the company's proposed spin-off of financial subsidiary CIT would come through on schedule also cast a pall over the company.

Economic data indicating the economy improving only marginally may have played into the sell-off. The Labour Department said the unemployment rate fell from 6.1% in April to 5.8% in May, but the number of new jobs created, 58,000, was substantially below forecasts. Economists said the data added to signs that the recovery may have flattened out.

Financial services shares were among sectors recovering little as the day wore on. American Express stumbled $1.20 or 3% to $39.16, Citigroup dived $1 or 2.4% to $41.