Sentence Correction

The economic forces which may affect the new public offering of stock include sudden downturns in the market, hedging and other investor strategies for preventing losses, loosening the interest rates in Washington, and fearing that the company may still be undercapitalized.
(A) loosening the interest rates in Washington, and fearing that the company may still be undercapitalized
(B) loosening the interest rates in Washington, and a fear of the company still being undercapitalized
(C) a loosening of the interest rates in Washington, and fearing that the company may still be undercapitalized
(D) a loosening of the interest rates in Washington, and a fear of the still undercapitalized company
(E) a loosening of the interest rates in Washington, and a fear that the company may still be undercapitalized

why not A?

IMO because fearing is acting as a verb....in A...we need nouns to parallel the things....

We need parallelism in this sentence..

the first two are nouns(sudden downturns and hedging).. and so we need nouns in the underlined portion too..

quickly the 3:2 conversion gives us, c,d and e.

c] use of fearing is incorrect.. we need a noun.. here it acts as a verb

d] fear of the still undercapitalized company. construction is awkward and alters the meaning.. stating that the company is underutilized.. when "it may be underutilized"

e] perfect.

oh! thanks to you all. As you have found already, oa is E.