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Strategies & Market Trends : Galapagos Islands -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: AugustWest who wrote (11741)	11/7/2002 8:26:55 AM
From: Lost1	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 57110

Stocks Set for Slump as Cisco Disappoints 25 minutes ago By Denise Duclaux NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks are expected to slump at the opening bell on Thursday after a disappointing revenue outlook from technology bellwether Cisco Systems Inc. (NasdaqNM:CSCO - news) stirred doubts over the market's month-long rally. Cisco, the No. 1 maker of gear that directs Internet traffic, posted a quarterly net profit from a year-ago loss but issued a cautious revenue outlook. The Nasdaq heavyweight said revenue in its second quarter would be flat to down as much as 4 percent from its first quarter as customers cut spending. Cisco fell to $12.60 before the open from its $12.96 close. "Cisco talking about weak information spending was the piece of news we didn't want to hear the most," said Arthur Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co. "Bear in mind too that we have been on a pretty good run for the last four weeks without taking much of a pause. This may be enough of a catalyst to have a pause, at least at the early going -- but I wouldn't give up the ghost yet." Cisco's anemic forecast lands after a slew of better-than-expected earnings reports lifted the market for four weeks in a row. Sentiment on Wall Street has taken a turn for the better, but concerns still linger over the corporate outlook as well as the pace of the economic recovery. The Fed slashed interest rates by a half-percentage point on Wednesday, bringing borrowing costs to a fresh 40-year low and surprising investors who expected a smaller, quarter-percentage point cut. Policymakers signaled they would likely stand pat for now after the reduction, explaining risks to the economy were balanced between weakness and inflation. Equity futures pointed to a weak open on Wall Street after a six-session winning streak in the technology-loaded Nasdaq. Standard & Poor's 500 futures for December fell 8.70 points to 917. Dow Jones industrial futures lost 72 points to 8,695, while Nasdaq 100 index futures for December surrendered 17 points to 1,052. The market gets several economic reports on Thursday that could shade the mood. The Labor Department (news - web sites) is expected to report at 8:30 am (1330 GMT) that productivity rose 4.3 percent in the third quarter after a second-quarter increase of 1.5 percent. New jobless claims, also due at 8:30 a.m., for the week ended Nov. 2 are estimated to have slipped to 401,000 from 410,000 in the prior week. Shortly after the opening bell, the Commerce Department (news - web sites) is expected to report a 0.2 percent rise in wholesale inventories in September after a 0.2 percent August increase. European stocks dipped in a volatile session after the European Central Bank stood pat on interest rates. The FTSE Eurotop 300 index (^FTEU3 - news) of pan-European blue chips eased 0.21 percent, while the narrower DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index (^STOXX50E - news) fell 1.14 percent. Tokyo stocks fell on Thursday with sentiment undermined by a series of downward earnings revisions, including by video game developer Sega Corp.(7964.T), while fears of an end to Wall Street's recent rally prompted profit-taking.