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

To: stockman_scott who wrote (47170)	1/29/2002 8:10:51 AM
From: Dealer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 65232

M A R K E T .. S N A P S H O T -- Stocks look to notch more gains Two-day Fed meeting to begin By Julie Rannazzisi, CBS.MarketWatch.com Last Update: 8:00 AM ET Jan 29, 2002 NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Stocks are poised for some upside action once trading begins on Tuesday while a two-day Fed meeting is set to commence. Economists are expecting the Fed to stand pat on rates following 11 cuts in 2001 that took the fed funds rate from 6.50 percent to 1.75 percent. An upbeat speech from central bank chief Alan Greenspan last Thursday squashed all remaining expectations for another helping hand from the Fed. Still, market observers expect the Fed to retain a bias to ease and will be closely scrutinizing the wording in the statement released at the conclusion of the meeting Wednesday afternoon for some cues on the future course of monetary policy. March S&P 500 futures shed 1.30 points, or 0.1 percent, but were trading around 0.60 point above fair value, according to HL Camp & Co. And Nasdaq futures gained 1.50 points, or 0.1 percent and were trading 5.80 points above fair value. Among shares changing hands in the pre-open, Texas Instruments (TXN) traded up $1.60 to $30. After the close Monday, Texas Instruments reported a fourth-quarter loss from operations that was narrower vs. the Thomson Financial/First Call estimate. Drug giant and Dow component Merck (MRK) rallied $1 to $58 in Instinet action after announcing its intention to spin off its prescription drug unit, Merck-Medco, as a separate publicly-traded company by mid-2002. Merck said its 2002 outlook for operating earnings in its core pharmaceutical business remains unchanged and said 2003 earnings should grow at a "double-digit" rate. In earnings news, FleetBoston Financial (FBF) reported a fourth-quarter loss of 49 cents a share as opposed to a profit of 81 cents a share in the year-ago quarter. The bank took a $538 million after-tax charge to write down loans and set aside funds for Argentina exposure. The company had delayed releasing its results to better gauge the Argentina effect. Treasury and econ focus Government bonds traded lower across the board, with the 10-year Treasury note off 7/32 to yield ($TNX) 5.105 percent while the 30-year government bond erased 10/32 to yield ($TYX) 5.49 percent. On the economic front, Tuesday will see the release of December durable goods orders, expected to climb 1.2 percent, and January consumer confidence, seen coming in at 96 from December's 93.7 reading. Check economic calendar and forecasts. In the currency sector, the dollar shed 0.1 percent to 133.38 yen while the euro slipped another 0.1 percent to 86.06 cents. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------