By Gavin Adamson

(February 24 – 17:00 ET) -Inflation worries pulled down the Dow today. It dropped below 10,000 for the first time since October, before it recovered slightly. The same pressure affected the TSE despite positive signs about Canadian inflation from today’s CPI report.

A widespread sell-off of consumer, financial and blue chip industrials brought the Dow down by 133.10, to close at 10,092.63. American Express led the interest-rate-sensitive financials, closing off US$7 1/2 to $130 5/8. ualcomm dropped $11 5/8 to $135 1/4 after the Chinese Government said it would delay the U.S. company’s wireless network plans there for political reasons

Still, the Nasdaq pushed ahead to 4,616.83, up 66.50, on other telecom news. Lucent technologies said it has signed many deals with a German telecom company, which sent the stock up by US$1 9/16 to $54 7/16. That deal had an effect on the Canadian market.

Lucent’s competitor, Nortel, dropped C$4.50 to $170 in heavy trading, and it’s parent also lost $4.50 to $167. TD and BMO lost 70 cents each to $43.95 and $59.95 respectively. The oils deflated as well on speculation that global producers will boost production after March.

In all the TSE slipped by 101.44 to 9,213.52, despite a $30 jump by JDS Uniphase, which closed at $374.30. Its share price was affected by U.S investment dealers, Lehman Brothers. The firms says it will be buying up the stock of the world’s number one fibre-optics equipment maker.

The CDNX added 19.72 to 3,646.41 on the back of a couple of small-cap tech stocks. Ecompark added 19% to C$3.08, and eDispatch.com bloated by 32% to $17.25.