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Strategies & Market Trends : VOLTAIRE'S PORCH-MODERATED -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dealer who wrote (36195)	4/24/2001 9:25:25 AM
From: Dealer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 65232

Before the Bell - Tech futures up despite Compaq, JDS By Elizabeth Lazarowitz NEW YORK, April 24 (Reuters) - U.S. stock futures inched upward in pre-opening trade on Tuesday as investors scanned a checkered batch of earnings data from the likes of high-tech heavyweight Compaq Computer Corp (NYSE:CPQ - news). ADVERTISEMENT Compaq said late Monday its operating profit fell as it contended with a slowdown in sales and price cuts by its rivals. The computer giant's results fell short of already scaled-down expectations, and the company warned the second quarter would continue to be tough. Its shares slumped to $19.35 on the Instinet electronic brokerage system from a regular close of $20.65. June futures for the technology-laden Nasdaq 100 index shed early losses and climbed 5.00 points to 1,824.00, pointing to a rise of 0.3 percent at the open. Futures for the Standard & Poor's 500 index were up 4.00 points at 1,230. The Nasdaq-100 Pre-Market Indicator was unchanged, pointing to a flat open for the Nasdaq market's 100 biggest stocks. JDS Uniphase Corp. (NasdaqNM:JDSU - news), the world's No. 1 supplier of fiber-optic components, was also hammered lower in pre-open trading after it posted a $1.3 billion third-quarter net loss, and said it would cut about 5,000 jobs, or 20 percent of its work force due to weak market conditions. JDS Uniphase's per-share profits, excluding one-time charges and other items, were largely in line with analysts' consensus estimate. But its shares, although off their lows, slumped to $22.10 on Instinet from Monday's regular close of $24.18. The gloomy high-tech earnings news threatened to cap the Nasdaq market, a day after major brokerages hinted the worst may be yet to come for some key tech bellwethers and helped send the Nasdaq Composite Index (^IXIC - news) down 4.81 percent. Struggling telecommunications equipment giant Lucent Technologies Inc (NYSE:LU - news) said its results plunged as they were hit by the slowdown in customer spending and the company's restructuring actions. After climbing briefly on speculation that JDS Uniphase would buy its fiber-optic cable unit, its shares slumped to $8.90 from Monday's $9.20 close. AT&T Corp. (NYSE:T - news) shares ticked up although the telephone and cable television giant warned of a weaker-than-expected second quarter and posted a first-quarter net loss as stiff competition and weak prices in the long-distance telephone market offset higher sales of data and wireless services. AT&T's shares climbed to $22.25 from a regular close of $21.98. Novellus Systems (NasdaqNM:NVLS - news) reported its profits nearly quadrupled from the same quarter a year ago, although they dropped 8.7 percent from the previous quarter amid a rapid slowdown in semiconductor capital spending. Shares of Novellus, a maker of equipment used in the production of microchips, climbed to $52.25 from Monday's close of $51.14. U.S.-traded shares of Ericsson (NasdaqNM:ERICY - news) also climbed in pre-open trade after the Swedish mobile phone maker and Japanese electronics group Sony Corp. (NYSE:SNE - news) agreed on a mobile phone production joint venture in a bid to boost their money-losing handset businesses. Ericsson's shares rose to $5.50 on Instinet from Monday's close of $5.35.