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

To: PCSS who wrote (26169)	5/14/1998 1:34:00 PM
From: Night Writer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

PCSS Lunch time break and general news. HP makes head lines. NW U.S. TRADING SUMMARY: The Dow industrials slid at the open Thursday after a profit warning from blue-chip computer supplier HEWLETT-PACKARD sent the company's shares sharply lower. At 10:45 a.m. ET, the Dow was down 64 points to 9147, well off its early lows. Asia was also a concern for the market with unrest growing in Indonesia and worries that Pakistan might launch a nuclear test in response to India's tests this week. Broader markets were stronger than the Dow, meandering around opening levels. The S&P 500 was off fractionally at 1118 and the Nasdaq rose two to 1868. Decliners outpaced advancers 14-10 on NYSE volume of 158 million shares. The benchmark long bond was off 12/32 with the yield up to 5.97%. TOKYO/LONDON: Stocks in Tokyo fell Thursday as TDK's worse-than-expected earnings announcement late Thursday afternoon damped the market sentiment. The Nikkei 225 average fell 36.12 to 15307.69 after a 21.33-point rise Wednesday. TDK said net profit and pretax profit were lower compared with the previous year when earnings were boosted by the sale of its U.S. semiconductor subsidiary, Silicon Systems Inc. Share prices in London were mixed through midday Thursday, as investors traded cautiously due to the weak Asian markets and an impending U.S. consumer price report. In midday trading, the Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100-share index was down 31 to 5942 after gaining 16 Wednesday. CURRENCIES: The dollar opened U.S. trading lower, dragged down by overnight sterling losses, and slid a bit more with Treasury bonds after a report that U.S. consumer prices rose a bit more than expected in April, dealers said. The Australian and Canadian dollars also continued to suffer as fresh Indonesian rioting pressured commodities prices, dealers noted. The dollar opened down at 1.7755 marks from 1.7784 at Wednesday's close and at 133.80 yen from 134.10. See Full Story at infobeat.com. MAJOR COMPANY/INDUSTRY NEWS: (All prices as of 10:35 a.m. ET) HEWLETT PACKARD CO. (HWP: 72-9/16, - 9-1/16) late Wednesday said earnings for its fiscal second quarter will be "well short" of expectations due in part to pricing pressures in the PC market and economic weakness in Asia. The computer supplier said its earnings were now expected to be about 65 cents per share for the quarter ended April 30 vs. 75 cents per share in the same period last year when it reported net earnings of $784 million. Prior to the latest warning, the consensus among analysts had been for second quarter earnings of 77 cents per share, according to First Call. See Full Story at infobeat.com. EXCEL REALTY TRUST INC. (XEL: 26-7/16, - 1-5/8) and NEW PLAN REALTY TRUST (NPR: 24-1/16, - 1-1/16) agreed to merge in a $1.36 billion stock swap to create the nation's largest strip-mall real estate investment trust. The pact calls for Excel to declare a 20% stock dividend and then exchange one share of common stock for each share of New Plan. The merged company, to be called New Plan Excel Realty Trust Inc., will have a market capitalization of $3.5 billion and will be 65% owned by current New Plan shareholders. See Full Story at infobeat.com. ECONOMIC NEWS: TODAY, May 14 The CONSUMER PRICE INDEX, the government's main inflation gauge, rose 0.2% in April following an unchanged reading in March. EXCLUDING THE OFTEN VOLATILE FOOD AND ENERGY COSTS, the CPI rose 0.3% after a 0.1% gain in March. The overall April CPI gain matched the forecasts of U.S. economists in a Reuters survey forecast, although the increase excluding food and energy was slightly higher than the projected gain of 0.2%. For the full text story, see infobeat.com U.S. workers' AVERAGE WEEKLY EARNINGS, after adjusting for inflation and seasonal factors, fell 0.8% in April, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The April drop followed a 0.2% fall in March real average weekly earnings. Wall Street economists had predicted an increase of 0.7% in April. For the full text story, see infobeat.com Stocks of unsold goods on the shelves of U.S. manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers increased in March, largely because weak retail business caused a pileup of inventories, the Commerce Department said on Thursday. Total BUSINESS INVENTORIES rose 0.5% to a seasonally adjusted $1.064 trillion after a 0.7% increase in February, the department said. The buildup in March inventories surpassed Wall Street analysts' forecasts for a 0.3% increase. For the full text story, see infobeat.com More signs of a strong U.S. job market emerged as the Labor Department also reported that the number of unemployed Americans filing first-time claims for jobless benefits fell for the third week in a row. New JOBLESS CLAIMS totaled 307,000 in the week ended May 9, down 2,000 from 309,000 in the prior week. Wall Street economists had anticipated a rise in jobless claims to 310,000.