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Strategies & Market Trends : the Women of SI -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: OldAIMGuy who wrote (727)	4/19/1999 9:31:00 AM
From: Rainy_Day_Woman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1691

Monday April 19, 8:41 am Eastern Time U.S.stocks seen opening higher on bullish momentum NEW YORK, April 19 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were seen opening higher Monday, with bullish momentum boosted by a shake-up in the computer business and a possible alliance between Telecom Italia and Deutsche Telekom (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: DTEG.F). ''We have a nice day,'' said Arthur Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co. ''The base of support is much higher.'' The Dow Jones industrial average closed higher every day last week as a narrow technology-led rally broadened out into stocks whose fortunes depend on the economy's performance. Tech stocks pulled back amid the shift from growth to value stocks. The Dow rose 3 percent for the week to 10,493.89, a record high close, while the Nasdaq fell 4 percent to 2,484.04. On the technology front, Wall Street was abuzz this morning with news that the two top executives at Compaq Computer Corp. (CPQ - news), the world's No. 1 personal computer maker, had quit in the wake of the company's financial turmoil. Analysts said news that the personal computer giant was putting its house in order could be a mild positive for the sector. ''The technology sell-off has been a bit overdone,'' said Jefferies' Hogan. Italy's Olivetti said it intends to continue with its $65 billion takeover offer for Telecom Italia, which announced over the weekend that it was in talks about an industrial alliance with Deutsche Telekom (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: DTEG.F). On the U.S. deal front, Columbia Energy Group (CG - news) offered to buy Consolidated Natural Gas Co. (CNG - news) for about $6.7 billion in an attempt to wrest the Pittsburgh-based gas producer from Dominion Resources (D - news). BellSouth Corp. (BLS - news) said it would invest about $3.5 billion for a 10 percent equity stake in Qwest Communications International Inc. (QWST - news) as part of an alliance between the companies for next-generation digital communications services. But analysts said momentum was still the major story for U.S. stocks. ''Mergers always help,'' said Larry Wachtel, market analyst at Prudential Securities. ''But the real story is, we have a different looking market. It's a breadth market and it's a volume market. The Dow is up today because of other (non-technology) components.'' The broadening market could mean further wins for U.S. stocks. ''You can't fight the tape and the tape is doing better,'' said Hogan. In earnings news, the drug sector was expected to get a boost from news that Eli Lilly & Co.'s (LLY - news) first-quarter net rose 22 percent to $0.56 per share on a diluted basis. Banking earnings continued strong, with Citigroup (C - news) first-quarter diluted core earnings per share coming in ahead of analysts' estimates. The Wall Street Journal's ''Heard on the Street'' column says that less is apparently more for many Internet companies when it comes to initial public offerings of stock. At 0815 EDT/1215 GMT, June S&P 500 futures were up 7 points at 1330.00.