Stocks Down or Nearly Out for Year
Friday February 9, 4:21 pm Eastern Time
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks fell sharply on Friday, driving the major market indexes to losses for the year, as investors buckled under a fresh load of pessimism over leading technology names like Dell Computer Corp (NasdaqNM:DELL - news) and Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT - news).
``The market continues to focus on negatives. It is unfortunate that the momentum we had (in techs) in January is fading,'' said Donald Selkin, chief market strategist at Joseph Gunnar & Co. which manages $750 million.
The Nasdaq composite index (.IXIC) tumbled 91.08 points, or 3.55 percent, to end at 2,470.98, according to the latest data, while the Dow Jones Industrial average fell 99.10 points, or 0.91 percent, to 10,781.45. The benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 17.77 points, or 1.33 percent, to 1,314.76.
With Friday's selloff, the Nasdaq is barely up for the year with a fractional gain of 0.02 percent, the Dow is off 0.06 percent, and the S&P 500 is down 0.42 percent. For the week, the Nasdaq dropped 7.1 percent, to Dow 0.76 percent, and the S&P 500 2.57 percent.
Dell fell almost 10 percent, or $2-9/16, to $23-1/2 on a report that the world's No. 2 personal computer maker is readying major expense cuts and may consider layoffs.
A Dell spokesman said the company was cutting costs, including travel and cell phone use, and was in the middle of an annual review which typically ended in some performance-related job cuts.
But asked if he would comment on a Wall Street Journal report that the company was preparing cost cuts of up to 10 percent amid slowing growth, he replied: ``At this point, no, because the full financials will be reported on February 15.
Motorola shares dropped $0.92, or 4.6 percent, to $18.90, after announcing it was cutting up to 12 percent or 4,000 jobs in its semiconductor unit in 2001 as a result of slowing demand.
The unit, which employs more than 34,000 people worldwide, said the job cuts are part of a cost-reduction plan that began in the fourth quarter. Motorola has more than 140,000 employees.
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BTW, I have loaded up on INSP (at an ave. price of around $4 1/2)...It's now my #2 holding and I have great expectaions that the firm will start to see a rebound next week when the new strategy is articulated. Enjoy the weekend. |
