On Wednesday morning, the mass media abounded with pseudo-apocalyptic horrors. Dozens are "exposed" to anthrax.

On Wednesday morning, the mass media abounded with pseudo-apocalyptic horrors. Dozens are "exposed" to anthrax. The U.S. has bombed a Red Cross building in Afghanistan. Israel has suspended relations with the Palestinians. But there is one bright spot in the world, if anyone cares any longer to take a look: E-commerce is doing fine. This was revealed in a report by Nielsen//Netratings. In a study joined by Harris Interactive, the Internet research firm found that people spent $4.7 billion online in September, a 54 percent increase over last year. Also, there were almost 39 million buyers last month, a record number. Online spending did fall 15 percent from August to September, the company said; in August, $5.6 billion was spent online, a record for non-holiday spending. But there were fewer purchasers that month -- 37.1 million buyers. As expected, online spending on travel was the hardest hit by jitters following the Sept. 11 attacks. There was a 24 percent drop in sales at travel sites. But Sean Kaldor, Netratings' vice president for analytical services, said the sites fared better than many people had expected, and there were already signs of a rebound. He said that traffic at most travel sites had returned to normal levels. Kaldor suggested that this was a sign that online selling was a fundamentally strong business.