Popping NY Manhole Covers Rattle Markets New York Times
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two people suffered minor injuries on Wednesday when several street manhole covers popped near the Empire State Building, police said, rattling markets edgy over official warnings of possible attacks on New York.
Police said up to six manhole covers blew, either because of pressure from water or overheated electrical wiring underground at West 34th Street and 6th Avenue in Manhattan near the landmark building and Macy’s department store.
“There is no explosion at the Empire State Building. It was a manhole cover,” said a New York police spokesman. “There were a couple of minor injuries only.”
Police immediately closed several streets in the city where nerves are still frayed from the Sept. 11 hijacked plane attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center and killed nearly 3,000 civilians and emergency personnel.
Law enforcement agencies across the country are on alert following a series of warnings from U.S. government officials last week that there could be another attack on the United States.
News of the popped manholes evolved in financial markets into a rumor of an explosion in New York a week after the FBI said the Statue of Liberty or the Brooklyn Bridge could be targets.
Equity index futures, tradable derivatives that indicates the early direction of the stock market before the daily opening bell at 9:30 a.m., began to weaken about an hour before the start of the regular trading day.
At 9:10 a.m. EDT, the Standard & Poor’s 500 June contract was down 17.50 at 1,235.00, near the low of the morning. Earlier, the contract was at 1,244, the morning’s high. On Tuesday, the S&P 500 -- the actual index the futures are based on -- closed at 1.074.55/