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Technology Stocks : Compaq -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Terror who wrote (24512)	4/17/1998 7:56:00 AM
From: Dorine Essey	Respond to of 97611

TALKING POINT By Richard Jacobsen NEW YORK, April 16 (Reuters) - The first blast of U.S. corporate earnings reports have left Wall Street breathing a sigh of relief and placing bets that better days lie ahead. While the stock market rally cooled some on Thursday, gains earlier this week in high technology, airline and heavy industry stocks reflect investors' conclusion that Asia's economic downturn will not have a long-lasting impact on corporate America's bottom line. "These were all the areas that were supposed to be banged up by Southeast Asia," said Peter Canelo, U.S. equity strategist at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. "What can you conclude? People simply had it all wrong -- Asia is just not that big a deal." According to to I/B/E/S, which tracks analysts' forecasts, 149 of the Standard & Poor's 500 companies had reported first-quarter results through Thursday morning. Of those, 74, or 50 percent, beat analysts' forecasts with their earnings numbers. Forty-three, or 29 percent, fell below expectations, and 32, or 21 percent, matched views. While some argued that companies were only clearing drastically lowered hurdles with their earnings, Wall Street is in a forgiving frame of mind. Among market heavyweights, Intel Corp. <INTC.O> beat downscaled expectations and Compaq Computer Corp. <CPQ.N> matched lowered forecasts with their first-quarter numbers. Both signaled their second quarters will be less than stellar. But the companies' "body English" -- in the words of one analyst -- indicated that the second half of the year will see earnings accelerate. With the prevailing bullish mood on Wall Street, that is enough for money managers to put their mounds of cash into the stocks rather than wait for more concrete evidence. "Managers are not going to wait till they see the whites of the eyes," said Robert von Pentz,