To: Voltaire who wrote (32558 ) 3/7/2001 9:40:11 AM From: Jill Respond to of 65232 Just spent half an hour on the phone with Fido, I HATE them, their statements are UNREADABLE. Almost done inputting these #'s, what a bore. I can't figure out how the spreadsheet calculates short puts tho. NEW YORK, March 7 (Reuters) - Stocks jumped at the opening bell on Wednesday after one of Wall Street's most influential strategists told investors that now is the time to funnel cash into equities -- the third bullish call by a market guru this week. The technology-stacked Nasdaq Composite Index (^IXIC - news) climbed 39.05 points, or 1.77 percent, to 2,243.48. The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI - news) rose 37.51 points, or 0.35 percent, to 10,628.73. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index (^SPX - news) gained 6.96 points, or 0.56 percent, to 1,260.76. Goldman Sachs Chief Investment Strategist Abby Joseph Cohen joined Merrill Lynch's David Bowers and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter's Jay Pelosky in advising clients to buy U.S. stocks following weeks of sharp declines, a slide greased largely by chronic concerns about the soft economy. Cohen's call comes one day after Intel Corp. (NasdaqNM:INTC - news), the world's No. 1 computer chip maker, and JDS Uniphase Corp. (Toronto:JDU.TO - news) (NasdaqNM:JDSU - news), the world's No. 1 fiber-optic parts supplier, offered disappointing outlooks. Intel said it does not expect chip demand to recover soon, while JDS cut forecasts and blamed a slow U.S. economy and waning demand. Intel rose $1-3/8 to $32-7/8, while JDS gained 11/16 to $28-11/16. ``Expectations are really at a lower level -- we continue to get bad news, but the market is not selling off on it,'' said Bryan Piskorowski, a market analyst at Prudential Securities.