July 21, 1996

Market's Big Scare, Wall Street's Big Fear

THE crash of T.W.A. Flight 800 last week set off a replay of a familiar but flawed script. Soon after the 747 jet, bound from New York to Paris with 230 people on board, went down in flames off Long Island Wednesday night, breathless theories emerged about the possible cause. But real answers don't necessarily come quickly, even when the cause turns out to be terrorism. In 1988, seven days passed before investigators determined that Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, because of a bomb. In accidents, sometimes the causes emerge much more slowly. And sometimes, not at all.

The Chinese women returned unevenly to international swimming today after a two-year absence, winning an Olympic gold medal in the 100-meter freestyle, but losing three of their top four swimmers in the preliminary rounds on a day of fire alarms and false alarms. Late Friday night, the Chinese team was awakened by fire alarms and was forced to evacuate its dormitory rooms at the Olympic village, Chinese officials said today. Earlier, the Chinese delegation had complained about the quality of food in the village dining hall.

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani slammed a sledgehammer into the limestone facade of 45 Wall Street last week to begin construction work on one of the first office towers to be converted to residences under New York City's Lower Manhattan Revitalization Plan. The 28-story building, spanning the blockfront on William Street from Wall Street to Exchange Place, has been vacant for several years. It will be converted to 437 rental apartments with retail space on the ground floor and a rooftop fitness center by Rockrose Development Corporation in affiliation with Goldman Sachs & Company. Apartments will be available in about 12 months.

You survived the plunge in stocks, and you didn't panic. Maybe you took a long lunch on Tuesday and didn't even see the worst of the slide until it was over. And now stocks have made up a significant part of what was lost. Congratulations. But you're still a little nervous, and you wonder if there isn't a way to take out a little insurance, to be sure your portfolio won't melt the next time worry sets in.