not a good day to be associated with microsoft
(Updates to early afternoon)
By Eric Wahlgren
NEW YORK, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Technology shares, led by
software giant Microsoft Corp. <MSFT.O>, pulled down the stock
market in early afternoon trading on Friday, as investors
stepped up their profit taking following this week's big run-up
in the Nasdaq market.
The market's slide came after a retail sales report showed
a smaller-than-expected rise in January but an end-of-year 1999
spending spree, leaving little doubt that more interest-rate
hikes are on the way to cool the U.S. economy.
"The market has come an awfully long way and it really
needs a pause," said James Oberweis, Sr., president and
portfolio manager of Oberweis Asset Management in North Aurora,
Ill. "I believe we need a period of ups and downs where we
don't make much progress to give earnings a chance to start to
catch up with valuations."
The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> fell to a session
low, losing 110.14 points, or 1.03 percent, to 10,533.49, a
level not seen in 3-1/2 months. The broader Standard & Poor's
500 Index <.SPX> slipped 17.20 points, or 1.21 percent, to
1,399.63.
The biggest loser in the Dow, and a component in the two
other major indices, was Microsoft, which dropped 5-1/4 to
100-3/4 on concerns about the compatibility of its new Windows
2000 operating system with other software systems. |
