Blue-Chip stocks swung widely in New York and closed lower yesterday as anxiety about third-quarter earnings mounted, but broad-market indexes held firm. The Dow Jones industrial dropped 36.05 points - or by 0.4 per cent - at 7,897.20. The bluechip index rose 53 points in early trading, retreated to minus 77 points, rallied a second time and then dropped back again.

Investors turned their focus away from problems in the White House to problems in Asia and Russia, and how they will affect the earnings of US-based multinational companies.

The Standard and Poor's 500 rose 5.77 to 1,029.66, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 17.35 to 1,697.78..