Greenspan eases strain

COMMENTS from Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan took US stocks off their lows at midsession yesterday, with the Dow Jones industrial average losses easing and the Nasdaq composite index holding a solid gain.

At about 12:40pm ET, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 70.20 to 8,568.99. It was down more than 232 points just after Greenspan began speaking.

But the Nasdaq composite index rose 16.32 to 1,398.94. The Standard and Poor’s 500 index lost 5.62 to 912.31.