Around the World's Markets: New York

SHARES FELL in morning trading in a volatile market characterised by big price swings. Traders were concerned by nervousness about the durability of the boom in Internet-related stocks.

The Dow Jones index initially rose on positive earnings reports from the banking sector and news of a multi-billion dollar merger between AtHome and Excite, two Internet stocks. But the shares were quickly sold in a bout of profit taking. At mid-day the Dow was down 88 points, or 0.94 per cent, at 9,252.53.