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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Trio who wrote (60622)	1/7/2000 10:52:00 AM
From: T L Comiskey	Respond to of 152472

Friday January 7, 10:36 am Eastern Time FOCUS-U.S. payroll data ruffles bourses, dollar steady (Updates with U.S. data) By Jo Winterbottom LONDON, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Strong growth in December U.S. non-farm payrolls sent the U.S. 30-yr Treasury bond down one point on Friday and ruffled bourses on both sides of the Atlantic as it fuelled fears of an increase in interest rates. The dollar ticked up against the euro and was steady against the yen after the figures, which showed non-farm payrolls grew 315,000 in December, above expectations of a 224,000 rise. The strong figures fanned worries of an aggressive anti-inflation campaign by the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank while in the UK, most analysts think the Bank of England could raise rates 25 basis points to 5.75 percent as early as next week. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MARKET PRICES AT 1402 GMT EURO 1.0281/84 YEN 105.22/27 STERLING 1.6424/29 GOLD $282.20/282.70 +0.44 (pvs PM fix) BRENT $23.77 +0.15 FTSE 6474.5 +27.30 CAC 5,523.55 +73.44 DAX 6686.36 +211.44 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ``The market is going to be a bit skittish. Stocks may be pressured a bit at the open until the market sorts it out,' said Alan Ackerman, senior vice-president and market strategist at Fahnestock and Co. ``This is likely to put some frost on enthusiasm.' The December U.S. unemployment rate came in at 4.1 percent, even with the consensus outlook, but average hourly earnings rose 0.4 percent, against an expected 0.3 percent increase. March S&P futures <0#SP:> were up 11.5 points or 0.82 percent at 1,415.5, indicating a positive start on Wall Street, despite dipping into negative territory immediately after the figures were released at 1330 GMT. Major European bourses slipped back from earlier gains as cyclicals had found favour and among leading European blue-chip bourse indices, London's FTSE 100 (^FTSE - news) was up 0.4 percent, Frankfurt's DAX (^GDAXI - news) was up 3.5 percent, and Paris's CAC (^FCHI - news) was up 1.4 percent. At 1343 GMT the pan-European Eurotop index of 300 shares was up 21.18 points or 1.44 percent at 1493.69 while the narrower Euro Stoxx index of 50 blue chip euro zone shares was up 91.79 points or 2.04 percent at 4592.48. On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI - news) had closed 1.17 percent higher. But the technology-heavy Nasdaq lost 3.88 percent to bring it 9.8 percent below Monday's record of 4,131.15. Tech stocks had been among the poorest performers on European bourses although in Frankfurt, a 14 percent surge in shares of business software maker SAP AG (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: SAPG_p.F) -- after it said four quarter pre-tax profit was significantly higher than the same period of 1998 -- boosted the overall market. Wall Street was expected to focus on telecommunications giant Lucent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:LU - news), which said after the market closed on Thursday it expected first quarter profits to fall short of analysts' expectations. In pre-market trading, Lucent was selling at 53, compared with its close in regular trading of 69-1/16. Its warning had added to pressure on European telecommunications and technology stocks but early declines were trimmed as some bargain-hunting emerged. In London, telecoms equipment maker Marconi (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: MNI.L) suffered some fallout from Lucent's warning and was down around 2.8 percent to 9.05 pounds at 1350 GMT after touching a low of 8.44 pounds. Computer chip maker ARM Holdings (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: ARM.L) hit 30.00 pounds but later reversed its fortunes to be up four percent near 35.50 pounds. In Paris, Alcatel was most affected by the Lucent news, losing 2.4 percent to 206.5 euros but off a low of 197 euros. Biggest gains in the Euro Stoxx index were made by the retail sector, food and beverages. German telecoms giant Mannesmann AG was up six percent to 223 euros after the company, targeted in a hostile bid by British telecoms group Vodafone AirTouch Plc (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: VOD.L), said its 1999 group EBITDA rose about 37 percent to some 4.3 billion euros ($4.43 billion) as sales increased 22 percent or so to 23.2 billion euros. In London, media firm Granada Group Plc (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: GAA.L) caused a flurry in the sector as it said it might bid for Carlton Communications Plc (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: CCM.L) or that company's merger partner United News & Media Plc (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: UNWS.L). Carlton was up around three percent to 5.74 pounds, United News fell over two percent to 7.80 pounds and Granada itself was down 0.77 percent to 5.77 pounds. On foreign exchanges, the dollar held steady against the yen just above 105 yen to be quoted at 105.10/15 and made some gains against the euro, which was quoted at $1.0288/90, down from a high of $1.0330 touched after it was reported European Central Bank Vice-President Christian Noyer had told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera euro zone economies could grow by over three percent in 2000. The euro edged back from gains around 108.81 yen to be quoted at 108.16/26 compared to just 102.20 on Monday. The March Bund future <0#FGBL:> was up 0.4 points at 103.15, after reaching a high of 103.34, while the benchmark 10-year cash Bund was yielding 5.493 percent. Crude oil prices edged higher with February Brent futures <0#LCO:> was up 15 cents at $23.77 a barrel, as stormy weather in the North Sea played havoc with production and loading operations.