Mass. Stocks Follow Wall Street Slide

Massachusetts companies slid right along with the rest of the stock market Wednesday on growing concerns about the global economy.

One gauge of local stocks — the Bloomberg Massachusetts Index — fell more than 3 percent. Investment bank State Street fell 4.6 percent. And high-tech companies like Boston Scientific, iRobot and American Superconductor fell even more.

That doesn’t surprise Brian Bethune, an economist at IHS Global Insight in Lexington. He says tech companies are usually more volatile.

"So when the market goes up and down by 1 percent, technology can go up and down by 5 percent," he said. "It’s just the nature of the industry."

Bethune says another reason Massachusetts stocks fell hard is that many companies here depend on exports. So the trade gap and other new economic data cast doubt on the global economic recovery, and therefore how much other countries will import.