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

To: Rainy_Day_Woman who wrote (971)	5/15/2000 8:45:00 AM
From: Rainy_Day_Woman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1691

NEW YORK, May 15 (Reuters) - Stocks were expected to edge lower on Monday in light trading as Wall Street steps cautiously ahead of Tuesday's Federal Reserve policy meeting. Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan is widely expected to raise interest rates by an aggressive 50 basis points, which has been factored into market prices, analysts said. But investors were unlikely to take large positions before the central bank makes its move. ``I think it will be pretty sluggish with a minor bias to the downside,'' said Bill Meehan, chief market analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald. ``We gave back a lot of the gains, especially in the Nasdaq, on Friday and there are not going to be a lot of people anxious to get aggressive ahead of tomorrow,'' Meehan said. ``And I think a lot of people won't straggle in until tomorrow.'' Stock index futures fell, continuing the downward trend sparked late Friday that nearly reversed that day's gains. The Standard & Poor's 500 index futures for June was off 5.90 points early Monday to 1,424.80 while the Nasdaq 100 index futures lost 24.50 points to 3,393.00. On Friday, technology stocks rolled back near the end of the session leaving the Nasdaq composite index (^IXIC - news) with a gain of just 29.46 points, or 0.84 percent, at 3,529.06. Nasdaq ended the week off 288 points, or 7.5 percent. The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average advanced 63.40 points, or 0.60 percent, to 10,690.37 on strength in J.P. Morgan & Co. (NYSE:JPM - news), General Motors (NYSE:GM - news) and AT&T Corp. (NYSE:T - news). The Dow ended the week up 31 points, or 0.29 percent. Broader market measures edged higher with the Standard & Poor's 500 index (^SPX - news) up 13.15 points, or 0.93 percent, to 1,420.96 and the Wilshire 5000 index (^TMW - news) up 109.73 points, or 0.84 percent, to 13,151.12. Trading volume was light, extending a series of sluggish sessions that is expected to continue on Monday. ``It's going to be light both because the weather is very nice and the Nasdaq faded late Friday and the FOMC is meeting tomorrow and the CPI comes before that,'' Cantor's Meehan said. This week's economic docket is heavy, focused around Tuesday's Federal Open Market Committee meeting. Consumer Price Index data for April will be released at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, marking the last set of critical figures the Fed may review before making a decision on interest rates. Industrial production numbers and the housing index should be released Monday, followed by housing starts, Redbook retail sales and jobless claims all on Tuesday. Overseas, European markets eased, suffering increased nervousness ahead of the Fed decision. Britain's FTSE 100 fell along with the Europtop 300 index and the narrower Euro STOXX 50 index.