Wall Street: Thursday close

LATE selling erased most of the gains made on interest rate cuts by the Bank of England and the European Central Bank.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, after surging 170 points early, clung to a gain of 33.15 points or 0.33% to 9,587.52 at the close. The Nasdaq Index had its winning streak stopped at three after it finished the day down 9.76 points or 0.53% at 1,827.77.

Early buying followed the decision by the Bank of England and the ECB to cut official interest rates by 0.50%. America's central bank announced an identical rate reduction on Tuesday.

Analysts said the UK and European moves were a belated recognition that recession and not inflation was the biggest risk to the global economy. 'The central banks in Europe are finally catching up with the U.S. and realising that fighting recession more important than fighting inflation,' said Edgar Peters, chief investment officer of investment firm PanAgora Asset Management. 'That's going to directly help the bottom line of large international companies and indirectly help improve sentiment.'

Economists said the co-ordinated rate cuts could speed an economic re-bound in the US and overseas and boost company profits.

Multi-nationals were among the biggest early gainers, but retreated with the rest of the market on what analysts said was profit-taking after the market's climb from September lows. The Nasdaq had surged 28% to above where it stood on the day before the terror attacks on New York and Washington. The Dow momentarily stood above 10 September levels before sellers moved in.

Aluminium giant Alcoa was among multi-nationals losing much of their early gains, finishing the day ahead 23 cents or 0.7% at $34.62. General Electric was among the few issues to add to its mid-session advance, closing higher by $1.05 or 2.7% to $40.40. Walt Disney finished regular trading ahead 38 cents or 2% to $18.84, but fell back 2.2% in the after-hours session upon missing its quarterly profit forecasts.

Retailers were led higher by Asda owner Wal-Mart, which posted a 6.7% jump in sales in the past month. Wal-Mart shares hung on to half its early gain, rising 68 cents or 1.3% to $54.50.

Financials were cheered by the foreign move toward lower rates. American Express tacked on 72 cents or 2.3% to $32.40, Citigroup gained 40 cents or 0.8% to $48.50 and JP MorganChase was marked up 21 cents or 0.5% to $38.80.

Techs struggled to stay in the black. Microsoft closed ahead 15 cents or 0.2% to $64.40. Intel, the word's biggest maker of semiconductors, was steady at $28.27. Cisco Systems, the networking gear maker, added 17 cents or 0.9% to $19.10. Hewlett-Packard, volatile lately on opposition to its proposed 12 billion pound merger with PC maker Compaq, eased 78 cents or 4% to $18.40. Compaq was flat at $7.99.

Enron, the embattled energy trader which has seen more than 30 billion pounds wiped from its market value this year, slipped another 64 cents or 7% to $8.41. The company confirmed it was in talks with rival Dynergy over a possible infusion of cash.