Wall St continues to slide on growth fears

NEW YORK - Blue chips resumed Friday's slide yesterday as more traders returned from an extended 4 July holiday and found little incentive to buy amid nervousness over the economy's strong rebound.

Roy Blumberg, Josephthal Lyon & Ross' chief investment strategist, said: "It continues to be a hangover from Friday's activity. People were surprised how strong the employment report was and the implications for inflation and interest rates."

The Dow industrials shed 37 points to about 5,551 after tumbling 115 on Friday after a strong June payrolls report.

Losers outpaced gainers 16-7 on moderate NYSE volume of about 365 million shares, up from Friday's anaemic 181 million shares in an abbreviated trading session.

"People are back to work and I think they're still concerned about what's going on. My guess is that we could go down another 100 points over next the few days." an investment strategist at Dean Witter said.