Around the World's Markets: New York

STOCKS REELED as Wall Street ignored strong earnings from several major companies and focused on a higher-than-anticipated employment cost index (ECI), a leading inflation gauge. The Dow Jones ended down 181 points at 10,791.29, while the hi-tech dominated Nasdaq fell 2.4 per cent to 2,640.

Bond markets were also rattled by the rising ECI, with the benchmark 30-year T-bond ending down 2532 at 88 2632 to yield

6.08 per cent.