market softness

"If the scatter market softness holds through the first quarter," Mr. Kostrya said.

G.E. attributed the troubles at NBC to "market softness."

But as it became increasingly apparent that the market softness was tied to more fundamental changes in the industry, the computer makers began to focus on reshaping their strategies.

And after alternating periods of market softness, followed by interim stability, the euro has declined anew in recent weeks, falling at an accelerated pace over the last several days.

The gains came despite what Procter & Gamble's chairman, Edwin L. Artzt, characterized as "continued recessionary market softness" in the United States.

The market softness noticed by chip makers like Intel and hardware vendors did not become clear-cut at Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Wash., until several weeks after computer manufacturers had been shipping fewer units, Mr. Connors said.

In downtown Manhattan, office tenants are "exploiting the market softness," Mr. Nealon said, and moving into first-class buildings from older buildings where landlords have failed to make improvements - or where inherent problems in original designs cannot be overcome no matter how much money is spent.