Voltaire...PM...
Wednesday March 1, 7:30 pm Eastern Time
INTERVIEW-Wall St strategist eyes Nasdaq 5,000
By Kristin Roberts
NEW YORK, March 1 (Reuters) - The irrepressible Nasdaq may be just days from breaking 5,000 as Wall Street shoves cash into biotech
and Internet names, chasing what could be the next high-flyer, said Scott Bleier, an investment strategist at Prime Charter.
Nasdaq bolted through the 4,700 mark Wednesday on biotech strength to log its 13th record of the year. It has gained 700 points in just
eight weeks and is up 17.5 percent in 2000.
``But I don't think 4,700 is really the number. I think the number is 5,000,' said Bleier, chief investment strategist at Prime Charter Ltd. "I think Nasdaq can hit 5,000 in only
a couple of days. It doesn't need a whole lot of time, considering we're at 4,780.
``That is such an incredible level of performance, not only relative to itself but to its peers and the other indices,' he said.
Gains in biotechnology stocks have boosted the tech-driven index to unprecedented heights in 2000. On Wednesday, the Nasdaq composite index (^IXIC - news) surged
1.86 percent, or 87.39 points, to close at 4,784.08 on record volume of 2.24 billion shares.
The Nasdaq biotech index (^IXB - news) itself has climbed an astounding 73 percent so far this year, making it Nasdaq's best performing sector. On Wednesday, the gauge
flew to 1,528.71, a new high and a gain of 3.55 percent.
``Everybody wants to own the same stocks and money managers being forced to jettison the old line and buy the new age,' Bleier told Reuters late Wednesday.
``There are no earnings worries to burden many of these stocks,' he said, noting that investors are buying many of the hot new biotech and Internet names based on
hopes of future earnings and corporate successes, not real-time successes.
That recurring rally in once-ignored, small-time stocks, has also lifted the Russell 2000 index (^RUT - news) to new highs while the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average
(^DJI - news) has lagged. The Dow is down 11.82 percent this year while the Nasdaq is up 17.56 percent and the Russell, up 16.56 percent.
``Nasdaq has changed the structure of the market. People want to know what the Nasdaq is doing, not what the Dow is doing,' Bleier said. "When they ask about the
market, they want to know what Yahoo! (NasdaqNM:YHOO - news), Qualcomm (NasdaqNM:QCOM - news), and JDS Uniphase (NasdaqNM:JDSU - news) have done. People
want the next 30-point gainer.
``Is it going to end at some point? Yes. When? I don't know. Do we need to be in on this? Absolutely,' he said. |
