Here's some good reading for you JT. Not that you don't have enough to read.
Benign CPI, good earnings boost tech
Brown Bag Lunch
August 16, 2000
by Thomas Coyle
NEW YORK -- A pair of benign economic reports and good earnings news in the semiconductor sector gave technology stocks a gentle boost in early trading today.
Consumer prices: July's consumer price index was 0.2 percent instead of the 0.1 percent the market had anticipated. The CPI rate with food and energy prices excluded was in line with expectations with an increase of 2.0 percent.
There were 1.51 million new homes started in July, about 40,000 fewer than expected.
The slackening housing market and the tame CPI bolstered the view that the Federal Reserve will put off raising interest rates when its Federal Open Market Committee meets on Aug 22.
"I'll swallow the can of Pepsi on my desk -- never mind what's in it -- if the Fed raises rates next week," said Bill Meehan, chief market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald.
Across the boards: At about 12:30 EDT, the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 26.75, or 0.69 percent, to 3,878.75.
Depressed retail stocks weighed on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which slipped 41.39, or 0.37 percent, to 11,025.61.
The Russell 2000 index of small-cap stocks added 2.03, or 0.40 percent, to 511.96.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index swung up 27.78, or 2.62 percent, to 1,088.30, and the Dot Internet Index added 7.47, or 1.10 percent, to 750.23.
The broad Wilshire 5000 gained 24.25, or 0.18 percent, to 13,834.25.
Semis surge: Semiconductor stocks extended their rally into a fourth consecutive session. Analog Devices (ADI: +7.75, 90.62) led the pack in early trading, boosted by strong third-quarter earnings of 43 cents a share, 6 cents higher than the consensus call. But even more than its healthy past, Analog dazzled investors with visions of a busy and prosperous future.
Analog also picked up a higher rating from Frost Securities to "strong buy" from "buy."
Other notable gainers in the silicon space included Cypress Semiconductor (CY: +1.19, 44.19), Lam Research (LRCX: +0.81, 26.81), LSI Logic (LSI: +2.31, 40.06), Altera (ALTR: +2.50, 60.44), Atmel (ATML: +1.81, 34.44) and Linear Technology (LLTC: +1.62, 67.25).
More moderate gains by big-cap chip stocks Texas Instruments (TXN: +2.19, 68.69), Intel (INTC: +1.19, 69.06) and Motorola (MOT: +0.81, 36.69) also helped the sector's recovery.
The biggest fly in the silicon ointment was TelCom Semiconductor (TLCM: -3.88, 13.38). The telecommunications chipmaker's share priced fell through the floor after the company warned of flat or marginally lower growth in the current quarter.
Nets up: The Internet sector was another strong spot, with Amazon (AMZN: +1.00, 38.56), America Online (AOL: +1.25, 55.75) and Yahoo (YHOO: +3.50, 135.81) trading higher.
Investors approved of Lycos' (LCOS: +2.81, 60.75) fourth-quarter numbers. The Internet content provider posted earnings of 12 cents a share, 4 cents -- or 50 percent -- higher than the analysts' call.
Moves on news: Investors also liked the fact that Corel (CORL: +0.31, 3.97) President and Chief Executive Michael Cowpland is calling it quits. The Linux software maker's stock has fallen about 70 percent in the last 12 months.
Kana Communications' (KANA: +5.00, 37.50) share price jumped on the news that it has entered into a strategic alliance with IBM (IBM: -1.00, 121.00) to offer b-to-c communications over the Web.
The deal could be worth as much as $1 billion to the two companies over the next few years, according to IBM.
3Com's (COMS: +0.75, 16.69) share price looked pretty lively, apparently on the news that Agilent (A: +0.38, 42.88) has selected the networker's "Total Control 1000" platform for its cable modem termination systems.
Networkers Cabletron (CS: +1.75, 31.88), ADC Technologies (ADCT: +1.56, 43.06) and Nortel (NT: +0.75, 81.06) also advanced.
Optical network gearmaker Ciena (CIEN: -4.50, 165.50) announced a 2-for-1 stock split, to be distributed as a stock dividend on Sept. 18 to shareholders of record on Aug. 28.
Bellwethers: With the exception of personal computer and information technology company Dell (DELL: -0.31, 37.75), most of tech's leading issues were buoyant, including Microsoft (MSFT: -0.06, 71.56), Cisco (CSCO: +0.19, 63.38), Compaq (CPQ: +0.12, 32.00), Hewlett-Packard (HWP: -1.06, 109.94), Sun Microsystems (SUNW: -0.00, 117.38), AT&T (T: +0.56, 31.81), Lucent (LU: +0.94, 43.19), Oracle (ORCL: +0.75, 82.00) and WorldCom (WCOM: +0.19, 35.31).
Brokerage Upgrades: BEA Systems (BEAS: +7.19, 56.06) got an upgrade from brokerage Wasserstein Perella to "strong buy" from "buy," and a handful of other brokers rushed in to reiterate "buy" ratings on the stock. Late Tuesday, the e-commerce infrastructure builder posted second-quarter earnings of 5 cents a share, a penny higher than expected.
E-Business applications maker Quest Software (QSFT: +2.50, 55.00) received an upgrade from Robertson Stephens to "strong buy" from "buy."
Thomas Coyle is the markets reporter at UpsideToday. If you would like to submit a letter to the editor regarding this story, email online@upside.com.
Dow Jones Industrial Avg. 11010.59 -56.41
S&P 500 1483.17 -1.26
NYSE Composite 666.94 -1.07
AMEX Composite 910.01 -2.77
NASDAQ Composite 3867.81 +16.15
Russell 2000 511.65 +1.72
30-year Treasury Bond 5.73 +0.01
last updated 08/16/2000 14:39
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