Stocks ticked lower at today's open, slapped by the latest in a string of Wall Street accounting scandals after office equipment company Xerox said it expects to restate revenues by about $2 billion over a five-year period.
The announcement jangled nerves still raw from WorldCom's disclosure earlier this week that it inappropriately booked nearly $4 billion, but investors were rapidly building up an immunity to the barrage of bad news.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 14.54 points, or 0.16 per cent, to 9,255.38, while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index slipped 1.43 points, or 0.14 per cent, to 989.21 on opening. The technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index fell 3.01 points, or percent, to 1,456.19.
Wall Street managed to shake off its accounting blues late in the session yesterday, despite a swirl of rumours that shook up the market, as investors focused on a government report showing the economy grew faster than previously thought in the first quarter.
