M A R K E T .. S N A P S H O T -- Markets look for that lasting bounce
By Julie Rannazzisi, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 8:20 AM ET Mar 30, 2001
NEW YORK (CBS.MW) - Stocks are looking for some lasting upside Friday following Thursday's extremely volatile trading session.
As tech stocks continue to struggle with a daily parade of earnings warnings, investors have been quick to sell on rallies while the buy-the-dip mentality has yet to be re-established.
"It's the end-of-quarter window dressing vs. the feeling that there will be more trouble next week. The mixed sentiments can be viewed in the mixed action on the indexes," C.E. Unterberg Towbin said of Thursday's activity.
June S&P 500 futures put on 5.30 points, or 0.5 percent, and were trading roughly 9.70 above fair value, according to HL to & Co. Nasdaq futures gained 15.00 points, or 0.9 percent.
A number of tech stocks that got slammed Thursday showed some signs of stabilizing in pre-market activity. Cisco Systems, for example, advanced 38 cents to $15.63 and Sun Microsystems rose 30 cents to $15 in Instinet.
In earnings news released after the close Thursday, Micron Technology (MU) posted a loss of 1 cent a share in its second quarter, less than the 3-cent loss that had been expected by First Call/Thomson Financial. Sales fell to $1.07 billion vs. the $1.2 billion last year.
Meanwhile, poultry giant Tyson Foods (TSN) announced that it has withdrawn from a planned merger agreement with beef packing behemoth IBP (IBP). The original deal was valued at $3.2 billion. Tyson rallied 17 percent in the pre-market while IBP tumbled 32 percent.
Separately, Trim Tabs estimated that all equity funds had outflows of $1.4 billion in the week ending March 28 vs. outflows of $15.3 billion in the prior week. Equity funds that invest primarily in U.S. stocks had outflows of $3.5 billion, compared with outflows of $12.8 billion in the previous week.
In the government arena, prices saw sloppy action, giving up early gains.
The 10-year Treasury note was off 1/8 to yield ($TNX) 5.015 percent while the 30-year government bond added 1/32 to yield ($TYX) 5.495 percent.
In economic news, Friday will see the release of February personal income, seen rising 0.4 percent, and personal consumption expenditures, expected to rise 0.3 percent. View Economic Preview and economic calendar and forecasts.
In the foreign exchange space, dollar/yen rallied 1.4 percent to 125.33 on the last day of Japan's current fiscal year - a level not seen since October 1998. Euro/dollar, meanwhile, edged down 0.1 percent to 0.8823.
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