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Strategies & Market Trends : Market Gems:Stocks w/Strong Earnings and High Tech. Rank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: kendall harmon who wrote (44445)	6/14/1999 5:09:00 PM
From: Spartex	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 120523

Monday June 14, 4:49 pm Eastern Time U.S. stocks end mixed, technologies sharply lower ''We're moving from a speculative to a more normal environment,'' said Hugh Johnson, chief investment officer at First Albany Corp. ''It's not just the Internet stocks, there has also been speculation in large cap growth stocks which were arguably overvalued.'' Among the Internet stocks, Yahoo! (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) fell 16 to 119-1/4 and America Online (NYSE:AOL - news) declined 8-1/2 to 91. The tech-laden Nasdaq composite index tumbled 50 points, or 2.0 percent, to 2,398. The American Stock Exchange Internet index (IIX - news) fell 22 points, or 8.0 percent, to 257. Warning: part of the article may be missing at this point. Mergers helped to boost some of the blue-chips although Qwest Communications International Inc. (Nasdaq:QWST - news) fell 10-3/4 to 34-1/8 following a surprise $55 billion bid for the phone companies U S West Inc. (NYSE:USW - news) and Frontier Corp. (NYSE:FRO - news). U S West added 3-1/8 to 58 and Frontier rose 1-15/16 to 57-3/8. Global Crossing Ltd (Nasdaq:GBLX - news), a rival suitor for U S West and Frontier, slipped 3/8 to 50-3/8. In another deal, utilities Illinova Corp (NYSE:ILN - news) and Dynegy Inc (NYSE:DYN - news) announced a $4 billion merger. Illinova rose 5/16 to25-5/8 and Dynegy slipped 7/16 to 18-1/4. Cyclical stocks were bouncing back after being weak for the last three weeks or so, said Barry Hyman, market strategist for Ehrenkrantz, King Nussbaum Inc. Among the cyclicals, Exxon Corp (NYSE:XON - news) rose 2-3/16 to 81-1/8, Chevron Corp (NYSE:CHV - news) gained 1-11/16 to 94-3/4, International Paper Co (NYSE:IP - news) added 2-3/16 to 54-7/16 and Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA - news) advanced 2 to 65. ''I believe you're seeing margin calls,'' Hyman said referring to the Internet stocks. ''This is a group of stocks that most people invested in through online trading accounts on margin.'' When investors buy stocks on margin they put up part of the purchase price in cash and borrow the remainder from their broker. Generally the rule is that investors must put up 50 percent of the purchase price and then maintain the position with 25 percent cash. Some brokers have adopted more stringent requirements for trading the volatile Internet stocks. When the stocks fall customers must either put up more cash or sell the stocks. Hyman said margin selling usually occurs near the end of a move. He added that many of the stocks have broken through technical support levels. Charles Schwab Corp (NYSE:SCH - news) fell 10-5/16 to 83-15/16. The second-largest U.S. discount and Internet broker reported that trading activity in May was down 28 percent from April. Analysts noted that April was a strong month amd the stock market subsequently weakened in May. Elsewhere, Ameritrade Holding Corp (Nasdaq:AMTD - news) fell 12-11/16 to 66-1/16, E*Trade Group Inc (Nasdaq:EGRP - news) fell 5-3/4 to 32, DLJdirect (NYSE:DIR - news) declined 3-1/16 to 24-7/16 and Knight/Trimark Group Inc (Nasdaq:NITE - news) tumbled 9-5/8 to 43-1/4. The 30-year Treasury bond rose 22/32, lowering the yield to 6.10 percent. Yields touched 6.16 percent Friday, which helped push the Dow down 130 points for the day. For all of last week, the Dow lost 309 points as anxiety mounted about a possible hike in short term rates by the Federal Reserve at its policy meeting at the end of June. A key event this week will be release of the Consumer Price Index on Wednesday. The number could influence the Fed's thinking depending on what it signals on inflation. In remarks in Congress Monday, Fed chairman Alan Greenspan did not directly mention interest rates.