To: Donald Wennerstrom who wrote (1518 ) 1/2/2002 4:59:34 PM From: Return to Sender Read Replies (1) | Respond to From Briefing.com Close: There were some positive early developments that triggered solid gains in a number of tech sectors. The key was the report that South Korean chipmaker Hynix Semi was going to raise prices on DRAM chips. The market construed this as a sign of improving market demand and bid the semiconductor (SOX +4.4%), networking (NWX +5.4%) and computer-hardware (HWI +5.3%) groups firmly higher. Unfortunately, this strength did not trigger a broad based advance with the much of the session spent vacillating at modestly weaker levels. This was reflected in the weaker market internals that persisted until late in the day. While the improving internals and late session advance is is encouraging, they came amid generally lighter volume, the same as the late slump on Monday. Potential factors conspiring to keep aggressive buyers out of the market were the impressive Q4 advance, warning season and a wait and see approach in front of the employment data and the influx of investor retirement cash. Not all the news was favorable for the semi sector, however, as the Banc of America put out a cautious comment on Intel (INTC +4.7%) regarding the pattern of capital expenditures (at 15 year high) and return on capital (15 year low). Also, Lehman suggested that neither bookings nor billings indicate a V-shaped recovery, although valuations at 3x their prior lows seem to discount one; firm expects most semis should post solid Q4 numbers but cautious until a U-shaped recovery becomes clearer. Regardless of these worries and the thin trading conditions that accompanied the late run, the market still has the positive seasonal factors into tomorrow's session. DOT +1.4%, Nasdaq 100 +2.1%, Russell 2000 -0.3%, SOX +4.4%, XOI -0.1%, NYSE Adv/Dec 1650/1539, Nasdaq Adv/Dec...finance.yahoo.com ^SOXX&d=t
