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

To: OldAIMGuy who wrote (976)	5/19/2000 8:43:00 AM
From: Rainy_Day_Woman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1691

hi Grizz~ you do get around :-) Las Vegas a very approp place to have a money show San Fran next show? what are the dates? I knows several SIers there, might be fun. are you going? thanks for sharing Grizz todays warm up: [actually it be looking a bit chilly] NEW YORK, May 19 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were seen opening lower on Friday as the prospect of higher interest rates gives few investors the desire to trade on the low volume that has characterised recent activity. A more virulent strain of the ``Love Bug'' virus that swept the world earlier this month, hobbling computers and stifling productivity, was threatening to infect systems anew as U.S. employees began arriving at offices. ``Another sloppy session on the street of dreams,'' said Bryan Piskorowski of Prudential Securities in New York. ``There has been a lack of liquidity. Ultimately what we really lack is a catalyst and leadership. Traders continue to hem and haw about the rate situation. Neither the bears nor the bulls are coming out to play.'' With more than an hour to go before the opening bell, the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures for June lost 8.90 points to 1,433.10, while the Nasdaq 100 index futures slid 68.50 points to 3,391.50. With little economic news to focus on, analysts said the market will continue to fret about the prospect of more interest rate hikes after the Federal Reserve took up borrowing costs by a half percentage point on Tuesday. On Thursday, New York Fed President William McDonough said the central bank is not yet sure whether this week's major anti-inflation attack -- the Fed's biggest move in five years -- will be enough to prevent the economy from overheating. Economic news to be released on Friday is not expected to have much of an effect on the market. At 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT), the U.S. Commerce Department is to report its international trade figures for March. Economists polled by Reuters forecast on average that the deficit widened slightly to $29.4 billion in March from an unprecedented $29.2 billion in February. Stronger-than-expected figures could be taken as a negative as they would indicate that demand remains high, meaning the U.S. economy continues to speed along. ``We do have trade numbers coming out,'' said Peter Cardillo, director of Westfalia Investments in New York. ``That is the big talk. I don't think they usually have a big effect on the market, but when you get in this type of situation, bad news just feeds on itself.'' Options were expiring on Friday, which Cardillo said could add to volatility. Bond prices were weak in early action with the 10-year U.S. Treasury note unchanged with the yield flat with Thursday's close of 6.54. The 30-year bond lost 9/32, with the yield rising to 6.25 percent from Thursday's close of 6.23 percent. On Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI - news) added just 7.54 points, or 0.07 percent, to close at 10,777.28 -- failing to regain ground after Wednesday's 164-point slide. Investors pulled cash out of nearly every technology sector, dragging the Nasdaq composite (^IXIC - news) down 106.25 points, or 2.91 percent, at 3,538.71. The Standard & Poor's 500 index (^SPX - news) slid 10.59 points, or 0.73 percent, to 1,437.21. The Wilshire 5000 index (^TMW - news), which reflects nearly the entire U.S. equity market, fell 137.07 points, or 1.02 percent, to 13,280.60. Among stocks in the news overnight, CIENA Corp. (NasdaqNM:CIEN - news) on Thursday reported higher second-quarter earnings that beat Wall Street expectations and forecast future growth as the telecommunications equipment maker's products continued to gain traction in the marketplace. CIENA closed at 137-5/16. The U.S. Justice Department and Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. (NYSE:COL - news) announced on Thursday a tentative, $745 million partial settlement in connection with a three-year federal investigation into alleged fraud at hospitals and other facilities operated by the company. The stock closed at 30-1/2. Contact lens maker Wesley Jessen VisionCare Inc. (NasdaqNM:WJCO - news) said on Friday its board is recommending that shareholders do not tender shares at this time in response to Bausch & Lomb Inc.'s (NYSE:BOL - news) hostile tender offer. Wesley Jessen closed at 31-2/16 while Bausch & Lomb finished at 66-8/16.