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Strategies & Market Trends : Mu Gamma Lambda -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jorj X Mckie who wrote (1242)	6/26/2001 6:47:22 AM
From: Rich1	Respond to of 10077

The Big Picture Tuesday, June 26, 2001 Printer-Ready Version Techs Advance Again; Other Sectors Falter Investor's Business Daily Tech stocks notched their fourth day of gains in five sessions Monday. But the rest of the market had trouble keeping up. The Nasdaq opened sharply higher, but by midday it eased into negative ground. A buying spurt in the last two hours helped salvage most of the day’s gains. The index closed up 0.8%. Advances and declines were nearly dead even, yet big-cap techs managed to tilt the index to a plus for the day. Microsoft (MSFT) logged just a 2-cent climb. It’s still 16% off its 52-week high. But Intel (INTC), Cisco Systems (CSCO), Dell Computer (DELL) and Sun Microsystems (SUNW) logged gains of anywhere from 0.57 point to 1.07 points. Together, these and two more issues – Oracle (ORCL) and Amgen (AMGN) – make up more than one-fourth of the Nasdaq’s total market value. The tech sector’s strength, however, was more than offset by weakness in medical, retail and cyclical names. The S&P 500 wasted a modest early gain and lost 0.6% The Dow fell 0.9%, sharply undercutting its 200-day moving average, a key long-term support line. Over the past several days, the index held up at this level. Volume slowed across the board. On the Nasdaq, it cooled 14% to 1.48 billion shares, the slowest pace in two weeks. On the NYSE, trading fell 12%. The Dow’s cyclical members took the biggest hits. Alcoa (AA), Caterpillar (CAT), 3M (MMM), Home Depot (HD) and three others each fell 1 point or more. Even if the Fed cuts rates again Wednesday, the market seems to be held back by fears of the economy’s future. It takes at least six to nine months for the positive effects of the Fed’s monetary easing to kick in. In the meantime, companies that miss or are likely to miss earnings targets are getting punished. Pharmacy chains were no exception Monday. Walgreen (WAG) dived 3.76, or 9%, to 37.25 on its heaviest volume this year. The megacap retailer posted an 11% rise in May first-quarter earnings, the slowest growth in 10 quarters. It missed Wall Street’s views by a penny, blaming front-end weakness. CVS Corp. (CVS) fell in sympathy, dropping 5%. It’s been a frustrating time for growth investors. Since mid-April, the Nasdaq has gone through several cycles of bobbing up and down. As long as uncertainty about the economy remains, the trading will likely stay choppy for a while. If you want to get in the market, know you’re taking on extra risk. It’s even more crucial to stick by the rules of correct buying and selling. Take Xoma (XOMA). The biopharmaceutical product developer started the day with a roar, breaking out of a wide and loose seven-month base and rising as much as 12% in the morning. But the stock sold hard in the last hour and ended with just a 0.35-point gain. While it’s still above its pivot of 14.93, the day’s action was not what you’d like to see on the breakout. A few Internets rallied more strongly. Hotel Reservation Network (ROOM) broke out of a long, wavy base, soaring 4.78 on 6 1/2 times usual trade to 43.90, a hair below the session’s high. The online lodging discounter was featured in “The New America” on June 20.