New York Stock Exchange chairman Dick Grasso has resigned amid rising fury over his $139.5m (€124m) pay package, his 36-year career ruined by cries that he made too much money running the world’s richest financial market.

TECHNOLOGY stocks took it on the chin at midday Monday after a deluge of earnings downgrades for chips roiled the sector and frustrated an already jittery market sentiment that's factoring in a war scenario with Iraq.