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Strategies & Market Trends : the Women of SI -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rainy_Day_Woman who wrote (923)	3/15/2000 9:08:00 AM
From: Rainy_Day_Woman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1691

NEW YORK, March 15 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were expected to open higher on Wednesday, with strength in the technology sector boosted by news of the stellar earnings at Oracle Corp. (NasdaqNM:ORCL - news), the world's biggest maker of database software. Oracle reported fiscal third-quarter results that soundly beat forecasts and was trading higher in pre-market trading on Wednesday morning. It was selling at 84 on Instinet, compared with its close at 77. ``With those numbers Oracle came in with, there's a good chance we'll get a rally on the tech side,' said Thom Brown, the managing director of Rutherford Brown and Catherwood. But he and other analysts noted that the Nasdaq Composite Index may be close to its top and due for a decline. Peter Cardillo, the director of research at Westfalia Investments agreed the market would open higher, but if initial gains didn't hold, Nasdaq could be headed for a correction. ``Was yesterday the beginning of the decline everyone was waiting for?' Cardillo asked. ``Today's crucial whether or not this is the beginning of the correction in Nasdaq.' Marking a second consecutive day of big declines, the Nasdaq Composite Index (^IXIC - news) dropped 200.71 points, or 4.09 percent, to end at 4,706.62, despite opening gains of more than 2 percent. The fall came after President Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair called for free access to research on human gene mapping, which sharply cut into high-flying biotechnology stocks. ``This is one of the most erratic markets I've ever seen. This is a tough market to read,' Brown said. The Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI - news) lost 135.89 points, or 1.37 percent, to end at 9,811.24, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index (^SPX - news) gave up 24.47 points, or 1.77 percent, to finish at 1,359.15. ``You've got the blue chips in a definite downtrend,' Brown said. ``I'm not sure, but I think we're close to that bottom.' In other company news, e-commerce software maker E.piphany Inc. (NasdaqNM:EPNY - news) said it would buy privately held Octane Software in a stock swap valued at $3.2 billion. Tyson Foods Inc. (NYSE:TSN - news), the world's largest chicken and poultry producer, said its second-quarter earnings would fall well below Wall Street expectations of 27 cents per share. It closed at 9-5/16. Cisco Systems Inc. (NasdaqNM:CSCO - news) will quicken the pace of its acquisition deals with a goal of buying 20 to 25 more companies within the next year, the Wall Street Journal reported. Cisco closed at 131-3/4. In economic news, February industrial production data are expected to show a rise of 0.5 percent, compared with the 0.1 percent increase in the prior month. Capacity utilization is expected to show a slight increase, to 81.8 percent, up from 81.6 percent in January. January business inventories are expected to show an increase of 0.3 percent, compared with the 0.5 percent increase in the previous month. February import and export prices are also due for release before the markets open. The Standard & Poor's 500 futures index for June was up 1.5 points at 1,381 while the Nasdaq futures index for June was 25 points higher at 4,325. The 30-year U.S. Treasury bond was down 8/32 with a yield of 6.11 percent while the 10-year note was off 2/32 with a yield of 6.30 percent. The dollar was at 0.96 against the euro and at 105.5 against the yen.