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

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (54814)	3/25/1999 11:36:00 AM
From: rupert1	Respond to of 97611

Thursday, March 25, 1999 Shares Soar, Led by Rally In Tech Stocks By AARON ELSTEIN INTERACTIVE JOURNAL Stocks rose sharply in Thursday, as encouraging earnings news helped ease concerns about the outlook for corporate profits. Technology and financial stocks led the rally. The long bond rose slightly and the dollar was mixed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 120 points to 9786 in late morning trading. The industrials received a boost after the new chairman of Caterpillar said he saw signs that Asia is starting to recover from its economic crises. Shares of the heavy-machinery manufacturer, a Dow component stock, rose 1 3/16 to 47 1/8. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index rose 14.60 to 1283.20 and the New York Stock Exchange Composite Index rose 5.70 to 602.30. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index surged 41.80 to 2407.10. Bonds edged higher and the dollar was mixed. The rally in the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite continued the momentum that started Wednesday afternoon and "it appears the worst is over" for the sector, said Steve Goldman, market strategist at Weeden & Co. The sector got a further boost late Wednesday when Micron Technology reported second-quarter profits after the close of trading that suggested that the worst memory-chip downturn in a decade is easing. The company said net income for the quarter ended March 4 reached eight cents a share, compared with a loss in the year-earlier period of 24 cents a share. Micron's profit was well above analysts' consensus of one cent a share. Shares of Micron slipped 1 7/16 to 50 9/16. "The market is due for a snap-back after falling 500 points since last Thursday," said Rao Chalasani, market strategist at Everen Securities. "It helps that tech stocks are getting their act together, and that there's some good news entering the market now." Financial stocks also resumed their leadership in the market after Morgan Stanley Dean Witter became the latest brokerage to post earnings well above analysts' expectations. Its shares jumped 3 7/16 to 101 3/16. Shares of Maytag rose 4 1/16 to 58 3/8 after the appliance manufacturer said that first-quarter earnings would exceed analysts' expectations by at least 13%. Thursday's news could be a sign that companies that are going to post poor earnings for the quarter have already done so, said Joseph DeMarco, managing director for equity trading at HSBC Asset Management Americas. "My sense is there have been fewer earnings warnings this quarter than in previous ones, so that's a sign that earnings might be okay," he said.