Hey beany boy,
Could I trouble you for some TA on the QQQ & or the NAZ?
BTW, I liked 'The Truman Show'.
Tuesday June 27, 5:26 pm Eastern Time
Nasdaq down 53 points as market eyes Fed meet
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By Haitham Haddadin
NEW YORK, June 27 (Reuters) - The tech-laden Nasdaq drifted over 50 points lower Tuesday amid profit warnings, profit- taking, end-of-quarter ``window dressing'' and negative views about computer industry giant Big Blue.
But with all eyes turned to the Federal Reserves' two-day interest rate setting meeting, which began Tuesday, trade volume straddled recent thin levels at 1.47 billion shares.
``Everybody is awaiting for 2:15 tomorrow afternoon. I would think there won't be one (a rate hike),'' one trader said, echoing market sentiment about the Federal Open Market Committee meeting that is expected to issue its decision around 2:15 p.m. (1815 GMT) Wednesday.
The U.S. central bank is expected to forego a rise this time following its aggressive half point increase in May, the sixth time it raised rates since last June in a battle to stem inflation. But many analysts see one more increase later this year.
Even some interest rate-sensitive sectors like financials did not escape the pressure, which left the Nasdaq composite (^IXIC - news) off 53.16 points, or 1.36 percent, at 3,858.96.
Year-to-date, the index is off 5.17 percent. Market breadth was negative with 2,338 issues falling versus 1,685 advances.
The Nasdaq 100 index of top stocks (^NDX - news) fell to 3,699.00 for a points loss of 72.45 and a percentage loss of 1.92, in line with the decline across the board.
Among the sectoral indices, the Philadelphia semiconductor index (^SOXX - news) fell 43.62 points, or 3.59 percent, to 1,172.95, the Biotech index (^IXB - news) 35.95 points, or 2.96 percent, to 1,180.39, and the Nasdaq Telecomm index (^IXUT - news) 9.99 points, or 1.17 percent, to 845.43. The Financial (^IXFN - news) and Insurance (^IXIS - news) indices drifted either side of five points each.
Technology shares were hit by the big decline in International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM - news) shares, down 5-7/16 to 109-11/16 on the New York Stock Exchange, after top Wall Street analyst Steven Milunovich of Merrill Lynch cut his estimate for its second quarter revenue growth, partly due to what he said was a slowing computer services market.
``IBM was hit by some negative comments and that's hurting the technology stocks,'' said Barry Berman, managing director of equity trading at Robert Baird & Co.
``It's also the end of the quarter and we got portfolio adjustments. Those things, combined with the Fed meeting, make today a throw-away day.''
Traders also cited profit-taking behind the decline in the big names. Software giant Microsoft Corp. (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news) fell 11/16 to 78-13/16, data base maker Oracle Corp. (NasdaqNM:ORCL - news) shed 7/16 to 82-1/4 and Sun Microsystems Inc. (NasdaqNM:SUNW - news) lost 3 to 87-7/16.
Internet routing equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc. (NasdaqNM:CSCO - news), the Nasdaq's most heavily weighted stock and the second most actively traded Tuesday, eased 9/16 to 62-1/4; Intel Corp. (NasdaqNM:INTC - news), the No. 1 computer chip maker, fell 2-13/16 to 131-3/8 and telecom firm Qualcomm Inc. (NasdaqNM:QCOM - news) was down 1-1/16 to 63-11/16.
Harmonic Inc. (NasdaqNM:HLIT - news) was heavily punished, falling 17-1/2 to 23-5/16, or nearly 43 percent to become the Nasdaq's percent loss leader, after Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette said it cut its earnings expectations for the electronic broker after the company warned of lower-than-expected second-quarter results.
But the volume leader was Worldcom Inc. (NasdaqNM:WCOM - news), up 2-3/16 to 39-11/16 with 49 million shares traded, following news the U.S. Justice Department, in its largest merger challenge ever, has sued to block the $120 billion tie up of Worldcom and Sprint Corp. (NYSE:FON - news), saying it would hobble competition in the Internet and long-distance telephone markets.
Worldcom shares rose as analysts expect it to become a prime takeover target if the deal falls apart. Kaufman Bros. analyst Vik Grover upgraded WorldCom to strong buy from buy on expectations the company's stock will jump, ``to reflect its newfound status as 'King of All Takeover Targets'.''
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