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To: Jenne who wrote (46697)	3/21/1999 9:37:00 PM
From: H James Morris	Respond to of 164684

>>NEW YORK, March 21 (Reuters) - The Dow Jones industrial average's excruciating climb to 10,000 could face some gremlins this week if a flurry of earnings warnings hit Wall Street. The world's most widely watched stock gauge reached the milestone three times last week but retreated each time. Some analysts hope the Dow can close above that level this week, but corporate warnings of earnings shortfalls could mean the 30-stock blue-chip average will not have enough strength for a reprise. On Tuesday, the Dow rose to 10,001.78 for just one minute before backtracking. On Thursday, minutes before the closing bell, it again topped the number, edging up to 10,001.51 before pulling back. And Friday, the Dow rallied a full 85 points above 10,000. But a wave of afternoon selling sent it into aretreat, and the index closed down 94 points at 9903. "(This week) is really more important for the Dow because the pre-announcements will be starting," said Ned Collins, head of trading at Daiwa Securities America in New York. In a pre-announcement, a company acknowledges its results are different than Wall Street forecasts, and aims to reduce the surprise, which can sharply move stock prices. Companies disclose results early, saying they either "beat the Street" or come up short. Pre-announcements tend to be negative, since many companies view beating Wall Street as a good sign. As corporate America tallies up its profits for the first quarter, which ends on March 30, firms get a sense of their bottom lines. Earnings season generally begins later, roughly four to six weeks after the close of the quarter. Wall Street is already getting queasy over first-quarter results. On Friday, worries about revenues at International Business Machines Corp. <IBM.N> knocked the Dow lower by nearly 40 points. IBM tumbled $9.125 to $168.56 on the New York Stock Exchange after Morgan Stanley cut its 12-month price target on the computer giant to $195 from $210. Also, Lehman Brothers analyst George Elling said that first-quarter results at IBM, the world's largest computer maker, and No. 2-ranked Hewlett-Packard Co. <HWP.N>, would "be a challenge from a revenue perspective." "IBM appears reasonably on track for the first quarter, although there have been some rumblings that services may not be as strong as in recent quarters," he said in a research report, referring to IBM's computer services unit. "After the December quarter's disappointment, computer hardware revenues are still somewhat suspect," he said. Hewlett-Packard stock fell $3 to $71 on the NYSE. The worries came just a day after another Dow component, Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Co. <MMM.N>, the maker of Scotch tape and Post-It notes, said the strong dollar would cut 3 cents a share from first-quarter profits. A strong dollar reduces the value of revenues generated outside United States after U.S.-based companies convert local foreign currency into greenbacks. Wall Street now expects 3M to earn 93 cents a share in its first quarter, down from a previous estimate of 95 cents, according to a survey of nine analysts by First Call Corp. 3M shares dropped $2.31 to $71.50 on the NYSE on Friday. A smaller company, Cambridge Technology Partners Inc. <CATP.O>, tumbled 46 percent to $11.375 after the computer consulting firm said it would miss earnings estimates. The stock was the second most active on Nasdaq. 18:51 03-21-99 <<