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

To: abstract who wrote (39811)	8/6/2001 9:25:39 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 65232

Stocks Set to Drop at Open, Intel Slides Monday August 6, 9:22 am Eastern Time By Chelsea Emery NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks are set to drop at the open on Monday as investors pile out of technology issues on worries corporate profits will continue to fall amid a global economic slowdown. Wall Street is also wary of taking large positions ahead of economic data and a closely watched earnings report expected later this week. ``The economy has yet to show signs of stabilization,'' said Art Hogan, chief market analyst for Jefferies & Co. ``That goes hand in hand with worries about profitability.'' Wall Street will scrutinize Cisco System Inc.'s profit report, expected on Tuesday after markets close, for a sign of whether the business outlook is improving for large technology firms. Investors will also watch retailers' sales reports for an indication of how well consumer spending is holding up. On Wednesday, data from the Fed's latest anecdotal survey of national economic conditions, known as the Beige Book, may help illuminate an uncertain outlook. ``There's not much of a movement in here,'' said Holly Liss, a strategist for Fuji Futures. ``Investors are waiting for data coming out, such as earnings and retail sales. There's a lot to digest.'' Cisco slipped to $19.80 in pre-open trading from its Friday close of $20.05. Chipmaker Intel Corp. was the most-active stock traded on Nasdaq, dropping to $30.30 in pre-market trading, from a close of $31.68. September futures for the Nasdaq 100 traded at 1,717.50, a decline of 24 points, a Chicago mercantile exchange stock index futures trader said. September futures for the Standard & Poor's 500 index slipped 6.10 points to 1,213.50, according to the trader. The Nasdaq 100 pre-market indicator lost 20.44 points, or 1.18 percent. Still, some merger and acquisition news got investors' blood flowing. US Airways rose in pre-open trading to $18.27 from a Friday close of $16.88 after Global Airlines, a New York-based holding company, said it is launching an effort to buy the airlines for $1.8 billion, or $27 a share in cash and stock. U.S. satellite TV provider EchoStar Communications Corp. slipped to $29.48 from its close of $30.44 after putting forward a $30.4 billion stock offer for Hughes Electronics Corp. and its DirecTV network in a move to eclipse a rival News Corp approach. EchoStar said it was proposing to offer 0.75 of its shares for each share of the General Motors Corp. -owned Hughes unit, valuing the unit at about $22.83 per share, an 18 percent premium to Hughes' closing price of $19.36 on Friday. Hughes rose to $20.30 on Instinet. Defense contractor General Dynamics on Monday said it would buy Motorola Inc.'s Integrated Information Systems Group for $825 million in cash. The transaction has been approved by the boards of both companies and is subject to normal regulatory approval. The deal is expected to close within 60 days. Motorola shares closed New York Stock Exchange trade last week at $28.63, while General Dynamics finished at $82.67. The stocks had not traded on Instinet. Investors will closely watch retailers' sales reports at stores open at least a year. Consumer electronics retailer RadioShack Corp., which last month reported second-quarter profits fell 45 percent, said same-store sales fell 6 percent in July. In overseas markets, Asian stocks ended mixed. Japan's benchmark Nikkei average rose 1.93 points to 12,243.90 as gains in shares of realtors offset losses in technology issues. European bourses inched higher as bank and financial stocks rose after global banking group HSBC posted pleasing first-half results. The pan-European FTSE Eurotop 300 was up 0.37 percent. Stocks dropped on Friday, one of the slowest trading days of the year, as hopes for a year-end uptick in corporate profits evaporated. Fallout from the lagging economy has forced analysts to chop their fourth-quarter profit outlook. Analysts now expect companies in the S&P 500 to post flat earnings, compared with a gain of 12.6 percent expected four months ago. On Friday, the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index slipped 21.05, or 1 percent, to 2,066.33. The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average lost 38.40 points, or 0.36 percent, to 10,512.78. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index slipped 6.40 points, or 0.52 percent, to 1,214.35.