24 August 2001, 11:06  U.S. share prices were little changed Thursday

afternoon in extremely quiet end-of-summer trade. The Dow industrials were down 47.75 at the close, finishing at 10,229.15. The Nasdaq composite was off 17.04 to 1842.97. The S&P 500 was off 3.22, to 1,162.09. Credit markets were extremely quiet Thursday as once economic data, buybacks and Fannie Mae pricings were out of the way, trading came to a standstill until the June FOMC minutes were released. The minutes revealed one dissenter, St. Louis Federal Reserve President William Poole, who said strong money growth was highly stimulative and that the real Fed funds rate is "likely below equilibrium level." The U.S. Treasury market dipped on the release of the minutes in a knee-jerk reaction to the idea of dissension in the ranks. But the minutes went on to say, "... much of the lagged effects of the Committee's earlier easing actions had not yet been felt in the economy, and they would be supplemented in coming quarters by the implementation of the recently legislated tax cut stimulus." As the words were digested treasuries came back to previous levels and returned to their state of lethargy. Earlier, initial claims data showed an increase of 8K. Continuing claims rose to 3.182 million, a nine-year high. //MarketNews

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