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

To: Rainy_Day_Woman who wrote (954)	4/19/2000 9:05:00 AM
From: Rainy_Day_Woman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1691

NEW YORK, April 19 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were seen opening lower on Wednesday after a zesty rally, as technology bellwethers and Dow components -- Intel Corp. (NYSE:IBM - news) and International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM - news) -- slumped in pre-market trading. The Standard & Poor's 500 index future for June was off 1.60 points at 1,451.10 while the Nasdaq 100 future for June lost 5 points to 3,745. A Commerce Department report showing the U.S. trade deficit hit a record $29.2 billion -- greater than what was expected by economists polled by Reuters -- did not immediately concern Wall Street, as the jump was linked to oil import prices. ``The numbers were not that far out of whack,' said Bill Meehan, chief markeet analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald in Darien, Conn. ``A lot of it was energy-related. The numbers are not having much of an impact at all. I don't think they would have unless they were far afield of what was expected.' Analysts said the strong deficit figures suggest that domestic demand is still high, keeping the Federal Reserve on its course to continue raising interest rates to ward off inflation. ``It looks like we are headed for a lower opening,' said Larry Wachtel of Prudential Securities. ``Both IBM and Intel are down after reporting. There is some profit-taking after big moves. But after the open, all bets are off.' Both Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, and IBM, the No. 1 computer manufacturer, reported expectation-topping first- quarter profits after the close on Tuesday. But Intel had a huge run-up ahead of its earnings report, while IBM's drop in revenues aroused some concern on Wall Street. Intel was trading at 125 in the pre-open after closing at 129 on the Nasdaq market. IBM was changing hands at 108-1/2 before the bell while it had finished at 115-1/8 on the New York Stock Exchange. ``It looks like we are headed for a lower opening,' ``We have trade deficit numbers coming out today and we are looking at another record deficit.' ``IBM squeezed by with some higher earnings but the revenues were not so hot,' said Peter Cardillo, director of research at Westfalia Investments. ``That could mean a little trouble for the tech stocks.' On Tuesday, biotech and Internet stocks helped lift the tech-packed Nasdaq composite (^IXIC - news) 254.41 points, or 7.19 percent, to 3,793.57. The gauge logged its best single-day point gain, surpassing Monday's record gain. Nasdaq has climbed 471 points in the previous two sessions to break through the 3,700 level again. Tech strength also helped the Dow (^DJI - news), which rose 189.91 points, or 1.75 percent, to 10,767.42. The Standard and Poor's 500 index (^SPX - news) added 40.17 points, or 2.87 percent, to 1,4461.61. The 10-year U.S. Treasury note slipped 14/32 in early trading, pushing up the yield to 6.055. Meanwhile, the 30-year U.S. Treasury bond was up 22/32, with the yield flat with Tuesday's close of 5.91 percent. Among other stocks to watch on Wednesday, America Online Inc. (NYSE:AOL - news), the world's largest Internet services provider, met Wall Street's most optimistic third-quarter earnings estimates on Tuesday as it posted strong growth in electronic commerce and advertising revenues and added 1.7 million new AOL members. Its stock closed at 60-1/2. AOL's performance could help boost volatile Internet stocks. Real estate and travel franchising giant Cendant Corp. (NYSE:CD - news) posted a greater-than-expected 24 percent jump in first-quarter operating profits amid strong growth in its online operations. Its stock closed at 16. SBC Communications Inc. (NYSE:SBC - news) and Cisco Systems Inc. (NasdaqNM:CSCO - news) will announce on Wednesday a deal that the companies said would be worth billions of dollars over the next 21 months, with SBC agreeing to make Cisco, the No. 1 maker of computer-networking equipment, its preferred provider of networking gear. Cisco closed at 69-1/4 while SBC closed at 41-1/8.