Uncertainty may trip Wall Street

Associated Press

NEW YORK — Stock prices are expected to come under pressure today, jeopardizing last week’s healthy gains, as traders await the market’s response to military attacks on the Taliban in Afghanistan.

There’s a chance stocks could briefly rally, a sort of patriotic nod from Wall Street, analysts said.

But the political uncertainty combined with last week’s rally on Wall Street build a strong case that stocks will fall today, analysts said.

Chances are the buying will fizzle as investors worry whether the United States will suffer more terrorist attacks after American and British forces unleashed missile attacks Sunday against military targets and Osama bin Laden’s training camps inside Afghanistan, opening a new front in the war against terrorists blamed for the attacks that murdered thousands in New York and Washington, D.C.

"I wouldn’t be surprised to see (the market) go up initially, but that probably won’t last. I have heard worries that there is a 100 percent chance of another terrorist attack if we attack Afghanistan," said Richard Dickson, a technical analyst for Hilliard Lyons in Louisville, Ky. "The market will not respond well to that."

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