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

To: PCSS who wrote (54753)	3/24/1999 4:56:00 PM
From: rupert1	Respond to of 97611

Wednesday, March 24, 1999 Industrials Rise As Tech Stocks Stage Rebound By AARON ELSTEIN INTERACTIVE JOURNAL Stocks closed mostly higher Wednesday after three days of losses, fueled by a modest rebound in the technology sector. Bonds inched up in reaction to an unexpectedly weak factory orders report and the dollar was mixed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 4.99 points to 9666.84. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index closed up 6.45 to 1268.59 and the New York Stock Exchange Composite Index rose 1.14 to 596.59. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 42.50, or 1.8%, to 2365.34, as many technology stocks rebounded following Tuesday's heavy sell-off. "The stocks that got beat up the worst over the last couple of days have bounced back," said Richard Scarlatta, director of research at Sutton Financial Services. "But I don't see a lasting rally developing, and the rest of the market is still high." Analysts said market activity was muted Wednesday by NATO's decision to bomb Yugoslavia. "Serbia is hardly a major trading partner, but an act like this can affect relations with Russia and the Middle East. In a global economy, people aren't going to be making any bets until they know what's going on," said Arthur Hogan, market strategist at Jefferies & Co. Among the strongest technology stocks were such bellwethers as International Business Machines, up 4 3/8 to 169 3/4, and Dell Computer, up 2 13/16 to 38 1/2. The American Stock Exchange Internet Index rose 2.49 to 275.77. Shares of Ubid rose 3 1/2 to 75 after Merrill Lynch & Co. analyst Henry Blodgett initiated coverage with a rating of "accumulate." But America Online fell 5 11/16 to 115 13/16 after a downgrade from Brown Brothers Harriman to "neutral" from "buy." Analysts said the market may not regain any direction until next week, when Federal Reserve policy makers meet on Tuesday, March 30, to decide the direction of short-term interest rates. Traders said the close of the quarter next week also is keeping trading subdued. "I think [Tuesday's] action has taken some of the short-term optimism out of the market," said Tim Hayes, market strategist at Ned Davis Research. "Near-term, I see a little more of a sell-off." Some investors took comfort from talk in the market early Wednesday that Goldman, Sachs & Co. market strategist Abby Joseph Cohen had bumped her estimates for the Dow industrials and S&P 500 for the year from 9850 to 10300 and from 1275 to 1325, respectively. Meanwhile, Treasurys climbed after the Commerce Department said that February orders to factories for big-ticket durable goods, such as aircraft and washing machines, recorded the sharpest decline in more than seven years, reflecting weakness across many industries. Orders slumped 5% to a seasonally adjusted $191.8 billion in the worst decrease since December 1991, when the economy was just starting its eight-year recovery from the 1990-91 recession. However, traders noted that the report's effect on the market was muted by the fact that the decline in orders followed significant gains of 3.3% in January and 3.4% in December and left orders still above the November level. In major market action: Stocks were mixed. On the Big Board, where 760 million shares traded, 1,481 stocks rose and 1,440 fell. Bonds edged higher. The bellwether 30-year Treasury bond was up less than 1/4, or $2.50 per $1,000 bond face-value. Its yield stood at 5.52%. The dollar was mixed. In New York, the dollar traded at $1.0885 to the euro and 117.93 yen to the dollar, from $1.0915 and 118.08 yen late in New York Tuesday. Tapewatch Update Durable-goods orders plunged a greater-than-expected 5% in February, compared with an expected decline of 2% and following a 3.3% increase in January.