31. Reports that sales of PCs slowed at the beginning of this year added to the downward pressure on stocks of personal computer and related hardware companies. 32. Puget Sound stocks fell amid concern that Microsoft Corp. is late entering the Internet software business and earnings growth will slow at Seattle Filmworks Inc. 33. Sales typically slow at such times, as customers hold off buying in anticipation of the new software. 34. Some companies in industries that slow at the start of an economic slump already show signs of weakness. 35. Still, a question remains about whether the economy is slowing at the rate Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan predicted it would in the second half. 36. Such concerns weighed heavily on computer shares which were already reeling from reports last week that orders for disk drives, printers and workstations slowed at Hewlett-Packard. 37. That prompted concern that sales growth will slow at Spectrian, maker of radio amplifiers for wireless telephone networks. 38. The motion detectors warn that something is amiss by indicating when traffic slows at nonpeak times. 39. The tape shows how he sped through a neighborhood, slowing at intersections and manuevering around vehicles at stop signs. 40. There have been a number of signs over the past week, however, that an economy that appeared to slow at mid-summer is again picking up steam. |