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To: Bob Kim who wrote (74839)	8/20/1999 1:35:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 164684

Internets firm as markets focus on rate meeting By Ian Simpson NEW YORK, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Internet shares firmed Friday as Wall Street focused on a Federal Reserve interest-rate meeting next week. Upbeat analyst comments helped underpin the sector, especially retailers. Expiration of stock option and futures added to overall volatility. The American Stock Exchange's 48-share Internet index <.IIX> was up 3.62 points, or 1.29 percent, at 284.12 points. The volatile index fell Thursday for the first time since Aug. 9, weighed by concerns about the June trade deficit and a weaker dollar. Markets were stronger overall as Wall Street looked ahead to a Federal Reserve meeting Tuesday on interest rates. The central bank is expected to push the benchmark short-term rate 0.25 percentage point higher to 5.25 percent. Alex Cheung, portfolio manager at the Monument Internet Fund in Bethesda, Md., said investors were more relaxed about the prospect of higher rates and looking past the U.S. trade shortfall. "Things like that don't last long," he said. Cheung added that data from Media Metrix, an Internet research firm, showing growth in Web retail purchases outpaced an overall rise in use highlighted a shift in Internet use. "What we have been looking for is for Internet users to become Internet buyers," he said. Media Metrix reported that unique visits to shopping sites rose 2 percent to 42.6 million in July. Overall visitor growth was up 0.4 percent to 62.9 million visitors. "We view the continued momentum of online shopping as extremely positive and another indication of a potentially huge online holiday shopping season to come," said Lauren Cooks Levitan, an analyst with BancBoston Robertson Stephens. Keith Benjamin, also a BancBoston Robertson Stephens analyst, said investors wanted to buy Internet shares but had been put off by volatility. He said queries from investors suggested "that we we will see a rush to buy within the next few weeks, just as we saw around last year this time." Internet retailer Amazon.com Inc. <AMZN.O> rose 2 to 108-1/8. Auctioneer eBay Inc. <EBAY.O> strengthened 3-13/16 to 117-9/16. Airline ticket company Priceline.com Inc. <PCLN.O> was up 1/4 at 66-3/4. Influential Merrill Lynch analyst Henry Blodget said the Media Metrix data showed that America Online Inc. <AOL.N> kept the top spot in terms of visits. Even so, AOL was "still weak" in terms of pages viewed and time spent at sites, he wrote. AOL was well below portal Yahoo! Inc. <YHOO.O> and Microsoft Corp. <MSFT.O> in those categories. AOL was off 1-1/16 at 94-13/16 and was the most active share on the New York Stock Exchange. Yahoo! rose 1-5/8 to 140-3/4. 859-1879))