21.   On the way down, the Nasdaq is signaling a sharp slowdown in investment and a technology sector that has gone bust.

22.   Second, it showed that the sharp slowdown in the manufacture of technological gear has not spread to drag down the overall economy.

23.   So far the economic data in Europe, unlike in the United States, does not show that a sharp slowdown has arrived.

24.   That is because it is being hit hard by the sharp economic slowdown in America and the global slump in technology.

25.   The data is a bright spot in a world economy battered by a sharp slowdown in America and an increasingly fragile Japan.

26.   The falls could indicate that the conditions set by the IMF would provoke a sharp economic slowdown.

27.   The Massachusetts economy earlier this year might have avoided a sharp slowdown when world economic turmoil was limited to Asia, Zandi said.

28.   The slump in Taiwanese investment has accompanied a sharp slowdown in general foreign investment in China.

29.   The troubles are linked to the sharp slowdown in the growth rate of the United States economy and the sell-off in American stock markets.