<font color=green>MARKET SNAPSHOT
Market indexes sag Chips gain for sixth session
By Julie Rannazzisi, CBS.MarketWatch.com Last Update: 4:21 PM ET Aug 18, 2000 NewsWatch Latest headlines
NEW YORK (CBS.MW) - The major average slumped Friday in a day characterized by choppy action as investors displayed a noncommittal attitude ahead of next Tuesday's Federal Open Market Committee meeting.
"We've gotten rid of a lot of the momentum in the market and a premium is being given to those blue-chip tech stocks that have done well from mid-March until now," said Joe Liro, equity strategist at Stone & McCarthy Research Associates.
Any enduring rally, Liro continued, will need to be built on the technology, financial and oil groups. "But I don't see an enduring rally emerging till mid-October."
Market participants, he said, want to see the economy's performance in the third quarter before committing to the market with more conviction.
Within the market, sellers emerged in the biotech, drug and oil sectors. Upside movers included retail shares, which rose for the second straight session, and paper stocks. Inside technology, chip shares enjoyed more gains on the heels of positive comments from Merrill Lynch. Computer hardware shares eked out minor gains while software issues continued to struggle.
The Dow Jones Industrials Average ($DJ: news, msgs) slipped 9 points, or 0.1 percent, to 11,046.
"We're seeing some consolidation in the Dow Industrials," said Barry Hyman, senior market strategist with Ehrenkrantz King Nussbaum. But the technicals, he said, look great as the blue-chip barometer has broken out in the latest week.
"The background news is good for the market and we're beginning to see a little broadening in the Nasdaq. The semis are again in bullish territory and we're seeing leaders like Sun Micro make new highs," Hyman continued.
Leading on the downside were shares of Philip Morris, Merck, Walt Disney and IBM. Upside leaders included General Motors, Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard and International Paper.
General Motors (GM: news, msgs) added 3, or 4.6 percent, to 68 7/16. The company announced that financier Carl Icahn intends to purchase more than $15 million worth, but not more than 15 percent, of GM stock, subject to regulatory clearance. See full story.
Honeywell (HON: news, msgs) climbed 1 1/8, or 3.3 percent, to 35 7/16. Late Thursday, the company announced that it expects third-quarter earnings-per-share will come in at 76 cents, up 10 percent from last year's quarter and in line with the First Call consensus estimate. The company also affirmed its plans to exit non-core businesses. Commenting on the news, Merrill Lynch said it views the activity favorably and recommends purchase of Honeywell shares for patient investors as the risk-reward ratio is very favorable.
The Nasdaq Composite ($COMPQ: news, msgs) shed 9 points, or 0.2 percent, to 3,931 while the Nasdaq 100 Index ($NDX: news, msgs) fell 21 points, or 0.6 percent, to 3,808.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index ($SPX: news, msgs) lost 0.3 percent while the Russell 2000 Index ($RUT: news, msgs) of small-capitalization stocks edged down 0.2 percent.
It's double-witching on Wall Street, with options on stocks indexes and individual stocks expiring.
"The current lack of liquidity in the market is creating a lot of extra volatility and outsized moves," said Bill Schneider, at UBS Warburg.
Volume was light 818 million on the NYSE and at 1.44 billion on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Breadth was weak, with losers outpacing winners by 16 to 12 on the NYSE and by 21 to 19 on the Nasdaq.
Separately, Trim Tabs reported that equity funds had inflows of $600 million during the week ended Aug. 16 versus inflows of $8.7 billion in the previous week. Stock fund investing primarily in U.S. funds had inflows of $1.1 billion compared to an influx of $.7.5 billion in the prior week.
Sector movers
Chip stocks plowed ahead for the sixth straight session, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index ($SOX: news, msgs) up 1.6 percent. The index is up a heady 19.8 percent over the past 6 sessions.
Merrill Lynch's Joe Osha released his quarterly update on the semiconductor industry, upwardly revising estimates for global revenue growth to 40 percent from 32 percent for 2000 and to 26 from 21 percent for 2001. The analyst said expectations for a period of sustained pricing strength in the latter half of the year as capacity restrictions really begin to bite was behind his optimism.
"The concerns that underpinned our mid-cycle correction thesis are beginning to dissipate, and semiconductor stocks globally are well below their March highs. We believe that the mid-cycle correction has ended - we would advise investors to begin buying semiconductor more aggressively," the Merrill analyst said.
Among the names Merrill recommends investors to focus on: Texas Instruments (TXN: news, msgs), Cypress Semiconductor (CY: news, msgs), Atmel (ATML: news, msgs), National Semiconductor (NSM: news, msgs), Analog Devices (ADI: news, msgs), ST Microelectronics (STM: news, msgs), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM: news, msgs) and Chartered Semiconductor (CHRT: news, msgs).
Within the mentioned group, National Semi added 3 3/16 to 45 1/4, Atmel climbed 2 15/16 to 36 1/14, and Analog Devices rose 3 3/4 to 96 1/4.
Agilent Technologies tacked on 9 from its NYSE close to 55 1/2. The company (A: news, msgs), which was spun off by H-P, reported third-quarter earnings of 33 cents a share after the close Thursday. That was well ahead of the First Call estimate of 20 cents a share and the 29 cents a share it earned in the year-ago quarter. Sales rose by 28 percent to $2.7 billion, compared with $2.1 billion in the year-ago period. Bear Stearns upped the stock to an "attractive" to a "neutral." Morgan Stanley Dean Witter raised its October earnings-per-share estimate to $1.31 from $1.17.
Shares of tech bellwether Sun Microsystems (SUNW: news, msgs) put on 3 1/8 to 122 9/16 following the company's announcement after the closing bell Thursday of a 2-for-1 stock split. The stock established a fresh 52-week high of 123 3.4 in intra-day dealings. Sun Micro is a component of the Goldman Sachs Computer Hardware Index ($GHA: news, msgs), up 0.2 percent, and Merrill Lynch's Internet Architecture Index (IAH: news, msgs), which gained 0.6 percent.
Inside the hardware group, Hewlett-Packard (HWP: news, msgs) rose 1 11/16 to 110 9/16, recovering from Thursday's sell-off on the heels of its quarterly report, which beat earnings-per-share forecasts but disappointed on the revenue front. Dell Computer (DELL: news, msgs) shed 3/8 to 38 3/4.
Among the networkers, Ciena (CIEN: news, msgs) shed 1 3/16 to 178, erasing earlier gains, after rallying on Thursday in the wake of its scintillating quarterly results. The Amex Networking Index ($NWX: news, msgs) edged down 0.1 percent while Merrill's Broadband Holdrs (BDH: news, msgs) added 0.9 percent. Corning (GLW: news, msgs) is also a component of the Holdrs, and is adding 5 1/2 to 296 1/2 after climbing on Thursday on the announcement of its 3-for-1 stock split. It touched a fresh 52-week high of 298 3/4 on Friday.
The largest upside moves were seen in the disk drive sector, with the Amex Disk Drive Index ($DDX: news, msgs) up an impressive 9.8 percent. Among the gainers were shares of Western Digital (WDC: news, msgs), up 1 1/8, or 25.7 percent, to 5 1/2 and Read-Rite (RDRT: news, msgs), up 13/16, or 16 percent, to 5 7/8. See related story.
Over in the IPO arena, two stocks in the Internet infrastructure arena made a smashing debut on Friday.
WJ Communications, a maker of components for providers of wireless and fiber-optic communications, tacked on 17 1/4, or 108 percent, to 33 1/4 in its first day of trading. And Peco II rallied 8 7/8, or 59 percent, to 23 7/8. The company makes power systems, distribution equipment, and systems integration products for communications networks. See IPO Report.
Treasury focus
Government prices gained ground in midday dealings, though short-term issues lagged. The fixed-income market has taken a wait-and-see approach ahead of Tuesday's FOMC meeting, even as participants remain unanimous in their view that the Fed will stand pat on short-term rates.
The 10-year Treasury note put on 10/32 to yield ($TNX: news, msgs) 5.77 percent and the 30-year bond added 14/32 to yield ($TYX: news, msgs) 5.69 percent. See Bond Report.
In economic news, Friday saw the release of the June trade data, which posted a deficit of $30.62 billion, less than economists' expectations of a deficit in the order of $30.9 billion. The May deficit was downwardly revised to show a deficit of $30.31 billion compared to the previously reported $31.04 billion. See full story and view Economic Preview, economic calendar and forecasts and historical economic data.
Commenting on the trade numbers, Joel Naroff, chief U.S. economist at Naroff Economic Advisors, said: "You know things are really bad when a $30.6 billion trade deficit is not as bad as feared."
"When you have the strongest economy in the world, you expect to buy from everywhere. If we keep growing at 4 percent or more, imports almost certainly will expand at double-digit rates," Naroff said.
"The only thing that will turn this deficit around is an economic slowdown. It is interesting to see that the dollar is king even as the trade deficit widens. The U.S. is still the best place to invest and the strong dollar has helped restrain inflation," Naroff concluded.
In the currency market, the dollar slumped against the yen after posting healthy gains earlier in the session. The pair (C_JPY: news, msgs) lost 0.1 percent to 108.40 while euro/dollar (C_EUR: news, msgs) slid 1.1 percent to 0.9061. See latest currency rates. The trade numbers initially lent some support to the dollar, giving it a boost against the euro in particular.
Meanwhile, the greenback was buttressed at the start of trading by the quarterly reweightings in the Morgan Stanley Capital Management indexes, which favored the U.S. at the expense of Japan and Europe. In fact, Japan's weighting was lowered to 10.75 percent from 11.04 percent while the U.S. weighting was increased to 49.36 percent from 48.10 percent. And the weighting of the euro-zone economies was shaved just a smidgen to 15.99 percent from 16.19 percent. See full story.
Within the MSCI US Index, 23 securities will be added and on deleted, with focus on the information technology and telecom services sectors. Among the issues to be added are: JDS Uniphase (JDSU: news, msgs), Broadcom (BRCM: news, msgs), Ariba (ARBA: news, msgs) and Siebel Systems (SEBL: news, msgs).
In the commodity arena, September crude added 5 cents to $31.99, ending higher for three straight sessions, while the Bridge/CRB index edged up 0.29 to 220.58. See related story.
Julie Rannazzisi is markets editor for CBS.MarketWatch.com. |