CFOs Expect A Down Dow

As stock prices continue to decline, the Dow Jones Industrial (DJI) average will close out the year at 7600, concludes a survey of 306 chief financial officers in U.S. companies. Executives in high-tech, communications/media, and banking/finance firms are the most pessimistic, expecting the DJI to close between 7000 and 7300, indicates the latest Financial Executives Institute/Duke University Corporate Outlook Survey. But if President Clinton is forced from office, the stock market will be beaten down further, the survey says. Two-thirds of the CFOs anticipate a moderately negative or severely negative reaction by the stock market if Clinton resigns.