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Technology Stocks : Oracle Corporation (ORCL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: vinod Khurana who wrote (4404)	12/11/1997 6:52:00 PM
From: vinod Khurana	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 19080

US OPTIONS FOCUS/Nervous bargain hunting in techs Thursday December 11, 6:03 pm Eastern Time CHICAGO, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Some options investors were bargain hunting as high technology stocks in the U.S. suffered another pounding Thursday, but nervousness was high, traders said. ''I've got a lot of buys coming across my desk in the techs,'' said one options dealer in Chicago. ''Maybe they're a little early or maybe they're on time. We'll see what happens.'' By 1130 CST/1730 GMT, the Nasdaq composite index (.IXIC), which is heavy with technology stocks, was down about 43 points, or 2.7 percent, at about 1,553, near its session low. The selloff in technology stocks came amid another earnings warning, this time from Quantum Corp (Nasdaq:QNTM - news), which said late Wednesday its third quarter earnings would be less than half what Wall Street expected. In addition, another computer disk drive maker, Seagate Technology Inc (NYSE:SEG - news), said Wednesday it would close a manufacturing plant in Ireland, cut 1,400 workers there and take an unspecified restructuring charge. Topping it off, Merrill Lynch cut its ratings on various semiconductor companies today including Applied Materials Inc (Nasdaq:AMAT - news), which was the most active Nasdaq stock, losing 4-11/16 to 27-1/16 on more than 25 million shares. ''We've actually had some people who have been selling puts to open positions'' in tech names like Oracle Corp (Nasdaq:ORCL - news) said an options dealer on the East Coast. ''We had some specs (speculators) come in and play that.'' He added that call buying had been heavy in tech stocks earlier in the December expiration cycle and those investors were growing increasingly nervous as the expiration neared. ''I think you're going to see a lot of waiting and hoping going into next week'' when December options expire, the dealer said. ''We've been seeing some people who have been just panicking because the calls are going out worthless again.'' Jesse Stamer, a general partner at TradeNet LP and a market maker at the Chicago Board Options Exchange, said he has been seeing some bargain hunting. ''If they're doing December, they could see them going out worthless but if they're buying Jan or April, going a little further out, the increase in volatility will soften the blow,'' he said. He added that in the CBOE technology index (.TXX), investors have been playing the January options more than the Decembers. The index was down 9.35, or nearly 4.2 percent, at 214.68. ''It appears to me that people are saying this thing is probably short term but we need more than a week, so let's go out six or seven weeks,'' Stamer explained. The dealer in Chicago said his clients were playing both December and January options. ''We've got some short-termers and some longer-termers,'' he said. Stamer said one trader in the Nasdaq 100 index (.NDX) options pit was pretending to lick his arm ''like he's licking his wounds. "I think you see a lot of that," he said.