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

To: Sully- who wrote (45180)	12/14/2001 2:51:11 PM
From: Sully-	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 65232

U.S. stocks near unchanged, investors eye earnings (UPDATE: Updates to late afternoon) By Javier David NEW YORK, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Stocks hovered near the unchanged mark in late-afternoon trading on Friday, with cautious investors avoiding the market amid confused signals about the health of the economy, and relentless bad news on corporate profits. ``Earnings weakness will continue to prevail through the fourth quarter, but the market knows that,'' said Graham Tanaka, president of Tanaka Capital Management, which manages $160 million. ``The good long-term investor is going to look past this quarter into the first and second quarter (of 2002).'' Recent data have failed to offer a concrete picture of how and when the U.S. economy will emerge from recession. Meanwhile, the market has been buffeted by a steady procession of warnings by companies whose earnings have been deeply eroded by the economic slump. The fourth-quarter confessional season -- when companies warn results may miss forecasts -- heats up at the end of December. Analysts predict profits for Standard & Poor's 500 companies will sink by almost 19 percent, according to research firm Thomson Financial/First Call. That forecast could drop further as analysts cut their outlooks throughout the quarter. In listless afternoon trading, the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI - news) was up 5.28 points, or 0.05 percent, at 9,770.22. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index (^SPX - news) slipped 1 point, or 0.09 percent, to 1,120.34. The technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index (^IXIC - news) was down fractionally, to 1,946.09. ``There's a total lack of activity,'' said Robert Basel, head of listed trading at Salomon Smith Barney. ``The market is directionless, (but) people will be back next week to figure out how they want to play their money.'' McDonald's Corp. (NYSE:MCD - news), the world's largest fast-food chain, helped support the blue-chip Dow and sparked a rally in restaurant shares by predicting growth in 2002, even as the company predicted fourth-quarter U.S. sales would fall slightly. Software giant Oracle Corp. (NasdaqNM:ORCL - news) posted an earnings drop late Thursday, which helped dampen gains in the technology sector. Independent power producers dropped as comparisons to bankrupt energy trader Enron Corp. (NYSE:ENE - news) continued to dog the sector. Investors have been reluctant to take share prices higher, after hoisting the market sharply above its three-year lows hit on Sept. 21. Major market indexes have surrendered a portion of those gains in the last five trading sessions as worries re-emerge an economic bounce may be further off than expected. The broad market is on track to close out its worst week since its tumble in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. The S&P 500 is poised to finish more than 3 percent lower. McDonald's climbed $1.26 to $26.99, offering support to the Dow. The fast-food chain expects to rack up a growth rate of 10 percent in 2002 compared to this year as sales trends in Europe and the United States improve. The company added it sees fourth-quarter earnings a penny below estimates, weighed down by weak Asia economies. Oracle shed 17 cents to $14.49. The world's No. 2 software vendor posted earnings that were down from a year ago and called the last quarter ``our toughest quarter in a decade,'' but said it expects profit growth to resume by the second quarter of next year. Shares in drug developer Pharmacyclics Inc. (NasdaqNM:PCYC - news) dove $12.23 to a record low at $9.44, or more than 56 percent. The company's lead cancer drug, Xcytrin, failed to prove effective in the treatment of brain metastases, cancer that has spread to the brain from another part of the body. Amgen Inc. (NasdaqNM:AMGN - news), the world's largest biotechnology company, fell $3.26 to $56.92 as investors seemingly gave a thumbs down to reports that it has proposed to buy Immunex Corp. (NasdaqNM:IMNX - news), a leading arthritis drug maker. Immunex lost $1.62 to $25.36. biz.yahoo.com