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Technology Stocks : Ascend Communications (ASND) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jack Colton who wrote (38425)	3/8/1998 8:09:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 61433

Surprising strength of stocks Excess capital helps Wall Street stage remarkable recovery despite warnings March 6, 1998: 6:19 p.m. ET Europe opens stronger - March 6, 1998 Asia gets some relief - March 6, 1998 View the latest market update via VXtreme See how your mutual funds are doing Play CNNfn's Final Bell Need investing advice? Try Quicken.com on fn NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Stocks ended a tumultuous week on a high note, brushing off a series of technology-related profit warnings to close near their all-time records. Strategists attributed the surprising strength of the market to a glut of capital that investment professionals needed to put to work. "My mouth is open. I just can't believe that stocks have managed to rebound so quickly. Cash flow is certainly a positive story," said Melissa Brown, director of quantitative research at Prudential Securities. (249K WAV) (249K AIFF) The Dow Jones industrial average recovered all of Thursday's losses, closing 125.06 points higher to 8,569.39. For the week, the index rose just 23.67 points. The broader markets also recovered. One day after a 47-point plunge, the Nasdaq Composite jumped 41.57 to 1,753.49 and the S&P 500 index was up 20.65 to 1,055.69 -- a new all-time high. "What an interesting day we had today. I think it just shows that this market is a very resilient one," said Wes French, money manager at Balentine & Co. Investors were not even fazed by two dismal profit forecasts from tech bellwethers Motorola and Intel within a 24-hour period. Still, the profit warning from Compaq Computer late Friday after the market closed apparently indicated that the worse was not over yet. The leading maker of personal computers said that its first quarter earnings are expected to be roughly break-even. The stock (CPQ) closed up 1/2 at 27-5/8. Volume totaled 670.1 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange. Advancing shares led decliners on the Big Board, 2,197 to 779. (Click here to view widely held stocks) Bonds closed higher, also recovering losses after the February employment report showed 310,000 jobs were created. The market briefly dipped after the jobs report came in above the 250,000 that had been expected. But prices bounced back when investors looked closely at details of the report and determined the strong numbers did not necessarily point to inflationary pressures. The price of the benchmark 30-year Treasury bond rose 18/32 of a point, lowering the yield to 6.01 percent. Irrational exuberance? To be sure, the upbeat market sentiment still couldn't help lift shares of Motorola. After the electronics company's profit warning from Thursday evening, its stock (MOT) fell 2-5/16 to 53-9/16. Bear Stearns, Deutsche Morgan Grenfell and Cowen & Co. all lowered their earnings estimates or downgraded their investment ratings. Motorola's announcement came on the heels of a warning from the world's premier chip maker, Intel, which a day earlier said sluggish demand would dent first-quarter results. Intel's words of caution rattled the market Thursday, sending technology shares and all major market indexes sharply lower. But the stock (INTC) bounced back Friday, gaining 2-5/8 to 78-1/4. Other technology shares also recovered, with Microsoft (MSFT) rising 2-11/16 to 82-3/4 while Dell (DELL) soared 6-5/8 to 138-1/2. And shares of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), another semiconductor maker that also issued a profit warning earlier this week, rose 13/16 to 21-13/16. But the stock of Sun Microsystems (SUNW), a maker of network computing systems, fell 13/16 to 42-3/4 after Bear Stearns lowered its rating for the stock to "attractive" from "buy." Elsewhere, shares of troubled hospital management giant Columbia/HCA (COL) gained 2-13/16, or more than 10 percent, to 29-3/16 after the company said it expects first-quarter earnings from continuing operations to surpass market expectations. Colgate-Palmolive shares also participated in the rally after the consumer products giant said its new "Total" toothpaste helped it boost overall market share. The stock (CL) jumped 4-3/4 to 83-15/16. Finally, shares of CompX International (CIX), a maker of ergonomic computer support systems, jumped to 23-15/16 after pricing at 20 during the company's initial public offering. -- by staff writers Malina Poshtova Zang and Robert Liu