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

To: Dealer who wrote (36537)	5/3/2001 12:19:16 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 65232

Market Close: Nasdaq Hits Eight-Week High ______________________________________________________ By Steven Dale Greenlee, www.NewsFactor.com Wednesday May 02 06:58 PM EDT <<Is the Nasdaq on its way to brighter times, or is spring sunshine blinding investors to impending new troughs? Wall Street is growing confident that a full-fledged recovery is underway, and the Comp's surprising fourth straight winning session reinforced the good vibrations. Chip and computer shares helped push the Nasdaq up 2.41 percent Wednesday, adding 52.36 points to finish at 2,220.60, its highest closing in two months. Bolting from the starting gate at the bell, the Comp hit 2,231.21, an intra-day high not seen since March 7th. The Nasdaq 100 saw more mixed trading, gaining 43.41 points to 1,962.42, a gain of 2.26 percent. By early afternoon, winners were handily trouncing losers by a 4 to 1 margin, to end the session at 2 to 1. Volume was nearly average at 2.5 billion. Most Street veterans expected a few sessions of profit-taking coming off high-flying April. Instead, the gains have been extended, creating a strong incentive for bulls to remain in the market to snap up bargains, like Cisco, before stock prices rise. It does not hurt that investors expect another trimming of the interest rate when the Federal Reserve (news - web sites) meets again next week, although speculation is that only a 25 basis-point cut is in the offing. Cisco The enterprise networking market in North America is stabilizing, declared Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Wednesday. Good news indeed for Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO - news), which reaped a bountiful advance, closing up US$2.20 or 12.4 percent at $20. Cisco has underperformed the Nasdaq 100 Index by more than 45 percent over the past 12 months, and Morgan Stanley analyst Christopher Stix left his rating on Cisco at neutral. Other sector issues benefited from the bullish statements. Juniper Networks (Nasdaq: JNPR - news) was up 3 percent, while Sycamore Networks (Nasdaq: SCMR - news) and Extreme Networks (Nasdaq: EXTR - news) each added about 10.5 percent. Redback Networks (Nasdaq: RBAK - news) piled on $4.57 or 23.5 percent, to close at $23.99 for the best showing in the sector. Latching Onto Good News While networkers basked in bullish confidence, Merrill Lynch's highly respected tech analysts were much more cautious. Analyst Steve Milunovich shied away from making a call during the firm's annual Hardware Technology conference, expressing concern that the tech market was "trading sideways." Also making a presentation at the conference was Brocade Communications (Nasdaq: BRCM - news) CEO Greg Reyes. His company was poised to meet expectations for its fiscal third quarter, he reported, and the news sent Brocade stock much higher; its shares finished up 15 percent. It was just April 20th when the company gave its second warning on second-quarter earnings. Chips Near Bottom Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD - news) CEO W. J. Sanders predicted during the Merrill Lynch tech summit that the sector is just about ready to turn around. "The communications business is not recovering yet, but the computer business is now beginning a slow recovery. This means to me that the second quarter is the trough for the entire chip industry," he said. AMD shares gained 3.42 percent. A report from the Semiconductor Industry Association that sales fell nearly 20 percent in the first quarter seemed to have little impact Wednesday. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index edged into the green by 0.63 percent despite the fact that March semiconductor sales showed the first year-over-year decline since 1998. Fed's Beige Book It does not pack a wallop with investors, but the Federal Reserve's "beige book" economic summary did reflect a slowdown in U.S. business activity. One upbeat note, however, was that the tight labor market had eased. The report will play a role in the Federal Open Market Committee (news - web sites)'s deliberations regarding an interest rate cut during its May 15th meeting.>>

To: Dealer who wrote (36537)	5/3/2001 7:58:09 AM
From: Dealer	Respond to of 65232

M A R K E T .. S N A P S H O T -- Stocks set for an open in the red By Julie Rannazzisi, CBS.MarketWatch.com Last Update: 7:45 AM ET May 3, 2001 NEW YORK (CBS.MW) - Shares are set to head lower once trading commences Thursday, with losses expected both in the broad market and in the technology arena. June S&P 500 futures shed 8.00 points, or 0.6 percent, and were trading roughly 9.40 points below fair value, according to HL Camp & Co. And Nasdaq futures gave up a heady 24.00 points, or 1.2 percent. In the government arena, prices squeaked out modest gains in early dealings. The 10-year Treasury note was up 3/32 to yield ($TNX) 5.27 percent while the 30-year government bond gained 2/32 to yield ($TYX) 5.70 percent. Thursday will see the release of the NAPM services index for April, expected to come in at 50.6 percent. View Economic Preview and economic calendar and forecasts. In the currency arena, dollar/yen edged up 0.1 percent to 121.44 while euro/dollar slipped 0.4 percent to 0.8904. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------